Colombia celebrates its annual Tomatina festival Sunday June 07,2015

 

Thousands of eager participants descended upon Sutamarchan to hurl overripe tomatoes at one another.

The Colombian town, which is located in the country's Boyaca state, has played host to the annual Tomatina festival for the past nine years. And the one on Sunday was just as messy as ever.

Classified as the region with the highest amount of tomato production in all of Latin America, many residents and visitors look forward to hurling tonnes of the overripe fruit at each other every spring.

Though tomato throwing is the highlight of the three-day celebration, other events include a contest to find the largest tomato and a tomato-eating race. 

In past years, some 20,000 people have attended the festival, which takes place 75 miles northeast of Bogota.  

The central city's annual celebration is inspired by a festival of the same name in the town of Bunol near Valencia, Spain.

Last year, 125 tonnes over overripe tomatoes were hurled throughout the Spanish streets by 22,000 participants, many of whom had travelled from abroad to be there.