(MyFOX NATIONAL) – It’s OK to play with your food, if it’s for charity.
And thousands did just that Saturday in Reno, Nev., where participants used 25,000 pounds of tomatoes as ammunition in a tomato slinging event dubbed “La Tomatina en Reno.” Trucks dumped loads of second-hand, food-rejected tomatoes onto the plaza around 5 p.m. and the attendees did the rest (see video at left). It cost $10 to enter $50 if you wanted to chuck one at the mayors of Reno or Sparks. All the proceeds benefited the American Cancer Society. Reno’s first La Tomatina mimics the event that has gone on for decades in the small Spanish town of Bunol. There about 110 tons of tomatoes are tossed off trucks for a fight that turns the streets into rivers of red, . “When we started thinking about this, we decided it would be good to bring a charity on board,” said Club Cal-Neva president Jeff Siri. And who cleaned up the mess Waste Management provided dumpsters and a clean-up crew armed with squeegees and shovels. Then the Reno Fire Department chipped in to give the plaza a washdown.
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