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It’s quite the summer of Spain in India. First the movie “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” (You Only Live Once) presented scenic vistas of Spain. Now a version of Spain’s famous La Tomatina festival has arrived in the Indian capital city of New Delhi.

Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
A tomato fight at the La Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain, August 2009.

The event is being organized on Saturday at a hotel in south Delhi by Flashback Entertainments, a Delhi-based event management company. The festival, which is celebrated every year at the end of August in Buñol, Spain, involves people throwing squashed tomatoes at each other and has attracted quite a lot of visitors in the recent years. Sankalp Kathuria, one of the organizers of the Delhi event, told India Real Time on Friday that his inspiration for organizing the event was  the movie, which shows the star cast at the La Tomatina festival in Spain.
More than 15,000 people said they will attend on the event’s Facebook page. The tomato festival has however, led to a war of words on Facebook and Twitter between Tomatina enthusiasts and others who question the tastefulness of the event. Manuja Singh Waldia wrote on Facebook, “Why would you waste tomatoes like that? Heard of hunger and deaths by malnutrition? And heard of clay and mud to wallow in?” Another person replied, “People, let this event happen! You don’t feed poor Indian kids Tomatoes, its La Tomatina, not La Rotina!”
Mr. Kathuria has said the organizers are only expecting 500 people to attend, and did not provide information about how many kilos of tomatoes will be made available for them.
Some have called for the event to be cancelled. Facebook user Kaushik Basu went further, saying, “We are seeking punitive action against the irresponsible organizers of this event.”
Abi Gill, another organizer, told India Real Time on Friday, “The event has become a huge thing , it’s bound to draw criticism. Doesn’t Diwali contribute to global warming? People haven’t stopped celebrating Diwali.” Diwali is the Indian festival of lights, when people decorate their homes with strings of light and set of fireworks.
Mr. Gill added, “The event is very much on.”
What’s next? A Pamplona-style running of the bulls? If Tomatina isn’t going over well, we can only imagine the furore that would create.

Via: India Real Time