Festival Bucket List: Jarramplas, Spain
What: The annual Jarramplas Festival sees locals throw turnips at a man dressed as the devil. You just can’t make this stuff up.
Where: The streets of Piornal, Spain are turned into an all-out turnip war for one day only – funnily enough, this odd celebration isn’t the only Spanish festival that involves vegetables. You may have heard of the annual La Tomatina festival in Spain, or maybe even the Battle Of The Oranges in Italy – sure enough Europeans are leading the charge on food fighting festivals.
When: Jarramplas Festival takes place on January 20 each year.
Fun fact: Different men from the village are chosen to be the lone ‘Jarramplas’ each year, and thankfully they get to wear body armour and a helmet under their colourful costumes. Jarramplas is meant to symbolise the Devil, so by pelting a handful of rock-hard turnips, citizens are theoretically expelling their demons by shooing this masked figure out from their lives. Or something.
Why should you go? You get to throw turnips! That should be reason enough! But actually, it’s a pretty awesome sight to see, and you may even get to expel a few demons of your own.
