Breaking News English

Spain's economic woes have led to one of its most famous festivals becoming "pay-to-join" event. cash-strapped town of Bunol will start charging participants who want to take part in its world-famous Tomatina tomato-throwing festival. Tourists will have to pay minimum of 10 euros ($13) to be part of hour-long tomato fight. Regardless, all 15,000 tickets have been sold. Local residents have been allocated 5,000 free tickets. Tomatina costs town 150,000 euros to organise. hefty part of that sum goes toward paying for 130 tons of tomatoes used as ammunition in street battles. streets are literally flooded with tomato juice at festival's end.

Tourists from all over world have flocked to Tomatina for decades. Bunol's town mayor told reporters decision to charge was partly due to financial constraints, but also out of security concerns. He said: "This is first year we are charging for access to this popular festival due to need to limit crowd for safety reasons. We have had problem for past eight or 10 years. Tomatina is not controlled. We don't know how many people are going to come." festival started just after end of WWII. There are various reports about its origins. most popular is that of brawl between teenagers near vegetable market ending up with youths pelting each other with tomatoes.