Both locals and tourists made the most of the fun-filled festival that was organised to promote tourism in Meghalaya. Hundreds of people took part in the event that saw the use of several quintals of ripe tomatoes.
Anthony Lyngdoh, Publicity Secretary of Amazing Colors of India (ACI), said that the international festival is being celebrated not only to provide a platform to the local upcoming talents, but also to promote tourism.
"This is basically an international festival, celebrate all over the world. We are giving the platform to local and upcoming talents. We are providing them a platform to showcase the talents. We are hoping for very good response and this kind of shows if we can organize from time to time it will only help promote tourism. When we started marketing and promotion for this event, till today we have been getting calls from all over. So people will be coming all over from other parts of the state," he said.
The festival was held in collaboration with Directorate of Horticulture, Meghalaya and Khasi Jaintia Vegetable Sellers Association. The organisers made use of tomatoes discarded by local vegetable sellers.
"As soon as you hear the word La Tomatina, immediately tomato comes to your mind. But exactly it's not only about tomatoes, it's about you have games here; we have a lot of activities here. And the fact that we are keeping this event is for people to have fun," said an organiser.
"This is one of the biggest platforms for us so far. As far as far festival, it's a Spanish festival which involves the tomatoes throwing each other. We have been working on few songs but then we didn't really get time to arrange everything," said one of the artistes who performed in the event.
A music band comprising differently-abled children from Bethany Society performed the event and won many hearts. The festival also hosted an exhibition where handicraft items and horticulture products were put on display.
-Source ANI