Welcome to Spain's La Tomatina Festival, the World's Biggest Food Fight

More than 20,000 grown-ups piled into the small Spanish town of Buno for the opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder and pelt each other with ripe tomatoes.

La Tomatina Festival is an annual event billed as the world's largest food fight and it is certainly one big, red, pulpy mess.

One needs a ticket for the free-for-all, and attendees are advised to wear white and leave behind cameras, valuables, wallets and the like lest they end up stolen or smashed in the slippery goo.

A tourist named Tony gushed over the goop, covered head to toe in dripping red bits of tomato. "I definitely recommend this. It's an awesome experience. I definitely want to do it again. The people are great, everything is great, so many tomatoes. I don't know how many ketchups we can make out of this, but it's delicious."

More than 160 tons of the red fruit are dumped by trucks at the festival, and those chucking them are told to mash them up before pelting their neighbors, otherwise someone risks losing an eye.

After the revelers look like refugees from a Wes Craven film, giant hoses squirt water all over the merrymakers, who are prohibited from using public transportation until they are tomato-free.

The event is said to have started in 1945, when a fight devolved into people pelting each other with tomatoes.

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