40 kilometres outside Valencia. The
festival, which starts at 11am and
lasts fewer than two hours, involves
the hurling and smashing of near-
ly 145 tonnes of overripe tomatoes.
It has been a fixture on the Spanish
calendar only since the late 1950s.
Held annually on the last Wednes-
day of August, the merriment be-
gins with a ham placed on top of
a greased pole in the town square.Once someone claims the ham, trucks
discharge past-their-prime tomatoes
to the crowd. Mayhem ensues.
After crowds started swelling to
more than 50,000 a while back, local
authorities limited access to the first
22,000 participants who purchase
tickets to join the food fight.
If you go, think about taking swim
goggles to protect your eyes, a pair of
old sneakers (they’ll be ruined) and
a change of clothes. After the battle,
fire engines hose down the streetsand residents pitch in by hosing
everyone – and everything – off.
Andrew FerrenFestival-Mediaval
SELB, GERMANY
SEPTEMBER 6-8
Every September, the small Bavari-
an town of Selb on the Czech border
transforms into a phantasmagoric
realm of dancing elves, fairy maid-
ens, head-banging Teutonic warri-
ors and vendors hawking everything
from stained glass to Mutzbraten, a
Bavarian-spiced pork specialty.
Festival-Mediaval, which claims
to be the largest medieval festival in
Europe, follows the unspoken rule of
such events in that loosely faithful
historical re-enactments mix with
characters and imagery drawn from
the magical worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien,
Game of Thrones,Dungeons & Drag-
onsand other fantasy subgenres.
While the Selb festival doesn’t ap-
proach the Middle Ages with quite
the bellicose rigour of other German
fests such as the Kaltenberger Knights’
Tournament, purportedly the world’s
largest jousting event, there will be
battles taking place on land and wa-
ter, by joust, sickle and powder keg. In
addition, there will be a literature tent
where leading fantasy and historical
authors will read from their books.
Charly Wilder
CONDENSED FROMTHE NEW YORK TIMES(MAY 6,
PHOTO: SHANE BAISDEN COURTESY OF PPTR AVEL.COM2018), © NEW YORK TIMES, W W W.NY TIMES.COM
115
Must See Festivals in Europe