Tomatina moves to London's Hyde Park
Tuesday, September 16, 2014 @ 4:24 PM
LONDON could get its own version of the famous Valencian tomato fight, the Tomatina.
Councillors from Buñol, a town to the east of Valencia city with 10,000 inhabitants which is renowned worldwide for its messy, fruity fiesta, have been in talks with the management of Hyde Park in the British capital.
Mayor Joaquín Masmano says meetings with the Spanish embassy's tourism department in London, Turespaña, have gone well and the huge green oasis in the city is expected to be the venue for a British Tomatina in July next year.
The first meeting with Royal Parks, which is in charged of Hyde Park, will be held in October.
Buñol's juicy fiesta first went global when it ended up on the front page of The New York Times in 1984, and since then has attracted tens of thousands of tourists from all over Europe – including the UK – and as far afield as the USA, Japan and even Australia.
Hollywood, Bollywood and even Russian tycoons paying over 6,000 euros for a VIP balcony seat to watch the tomato fight have since visited Buñol, and tourism bosses in South Korea want to hold their own version.
This year's festival brought some controversy with it, since Buñol town council started selling a limited number of tickets through a travel agency which earned commission from the operation.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com