It is known in Spanish as ‘La Batalla del Vino’ or the wine battle. It involves thousands of people soaking themselves, and everybody around them, in red wine that will ruin clothes for ever.
The festival is held in the historic, picturesque town of Haro, in the Rioja region, about 100 kilometers south of Bilbao, thousands of people turn up for one of Spain’s most exuberant festivals every June on, Saint Peter’s Day.
The festival involves a wine fight and then rushing off to run around a bull ring chasing frolicking heifers and then finally going off to a party.
Most people wear white at the beginning of the fight and everyone has containers such as jugs, bottles, buckets, water pistols, hose pipes – anything and soon the whole world seems to turn completely pink everyone is a target, so don’t wear your best clothes. This all continues until about midday, when everyone goes down to the bull ring in the town and the youngsters chase similarly young bulls around. What follows then are hours and hours of dancing, eating, competitions and drinking.
The town of Haro, its 10, 000 inhabitants joined by many, many visitors, begins to get the festivities under way a week before the battle itself. Visitors can look forward to the fact that Haro is renowned for the quality of its tapas, as well as it being in the center of Spain’s major Rojas - producing area. On the big day itself, a parade of horsemen leads everyone the 7 km up to the Hermitage of San Felices de Bilibio, where a flag is ceremonially placed and a mass celebrated. Then, the battle commences.
Spain has quite a few wildly exuberant festivals, where people end up getting covered in everything from tomatoes to mud. Among all these, though, the Haro Batalla del Vino still stands out as being totally crazy, unadulterated, fabulous fun.
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