Tomatina festival in Spain

The mayor of Buñol, Joaquín Masmano Palmer, told a press conference the decision to charge visitors was one that "no one wanted to take" but that the growing popularity of the festival, which last year saw around 40,000 revellers join in, left him with no chance. People came from thousands of miles, he said, "without being able even to touch a tomato," and that charging would simultaneously keep numbers down .