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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/26/la-tomatina-inspires-a-cheerfully-messy-google-doodle
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| La Tomatina inspires a cheerfully messy Google doodle | La Tomatina inspires a cheerfully messy Google doodle |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| La Tomatina is a strange festival. It attracts tens of thousands of tourists to take part in a tomato-throwing tradition in a Spanish town that does not actually grow tomatoes. | La Tomatina is a strange festival. It attracts tens of thousands of tourists to take part in a tomato-throwing tradition in a Spanish town that does not actually grow tomatoes. |
| Related: La Tomatina festival – in pictures | |
| The world’s largest food fight – whose 70th anniversary edition, beginning on Wednesday, is being celebrated via a Google doodle – has an origin thick with mystery. | The world’s largest food fight – whose 70th anniversary edition, beginning on Wednesday, is being celebrated via a Google doodle – has an origin thick with mystery. |
| Two boys are said to have tossed tomatoes at a parade to honour the town of Buñol’s patron saint, but the reasoning has ranged from being a saucy protest at Franco’s regime or simply two macho teenagers seeing red. | Two boys are said to have tossed tomatoes at a parade to honour the town of Buñol’s patron saint, but the reasoning has ranged from being a saucy protest at Franco’s regime or simply two macho teenagers seeing red. |
| Today, it is tourism, not tomatoes, that is the motivation for the continued celebration. The town’s agriculture is based in almonds, grapes and olives, not tomatoes, and officials import them from Extremadura. | Today, it is tourism, not tomatoes, that is the motivation for the continued celebration. The town’s agriculture is based in almonds, grapes and olives, not tomatoes, and officials import them from Extremadura. |
| The festival was free for participants from 1945 to 2012, but in 2013 the mayor of Buñol, Joaquín Masmano Palmer, imposed a €10 entry fee to help the recession-hit town defray its costs in tomatoes and policing, and also to keep the number of visitors down. | The festival was free for participants from 1945 to 2012, but in 2013 the mayor of Buñol, Joaquín Masmano Palmer, imposed a €10 entry fee to help the recession-hit town defray its costs in tomatoes and policing, and also to keep the number of visitors down. |
| This year the town plans for a record 150 tonnes of tomatoes, squished first to avoid injuries, and will launch its first ever tomato-based obstacle course, the Tomatina race. | This year the town plans for a record 150 tonnes of tomatoes, squished first to avoid injuries, and will launch its first ever tomato-based obstacle course, the Tomatina race. |