Ten crazy food festivals (that don't involve eating)

Not all food festivals involve eating. Here are 10 ways to have far more fun.

Held on the last Wednesday of August in Buñol near Valencia, La Tomatina opens with participants attempting to climb a greased pole for a prize ham, and involves plenty of singing and dancing. Then the tomato fight begins. Truckloads of tomatoes are flung for an hour, leaving the streets running red. Participants, bruised but happy, are washed down by fire hoses. The fight is mad, pointless but strangely exhilarating. See

This event at the Festival of Ivrea, a town near Turin, is cousin to La Tomatina, only much more painful. Nine official teams of orange-hurlers made up of 7000 participants, some on foot and others on carts, battle it out across several days during the February festival. Anyone can join in (for a fee) but you'll need a helmet with face protection. Over four million oranges are used. See

This small town in Queensland's Western Downs 300 kilometres inland from Brisbane goes wild over watermelons in February, which are celebrated with a parade, farm tours and various fun family activities. Much more entertaining though are melon skiing, melon chariot races, melon bungy and a melon slippery dip liberally lubricated with smashed melon pulp. The more sedate can try their hand at melon pip spitting. See

The Fête du Citron in Menton on the French Riviera stretches over two weeks in February. The main event is a series of daytime and evening parades of bands, samba dancers and fire-breathers accompanying spectacular floats in the shape of outsized landmarks and animals decorated with lemons and oranges. Meanwhile citrus fruit is used to create patterned carpets in public gardens. You can also enjoy live-music events and craft fairs. See

On December 23 in Oaxaca in southern Mexico locals get down to carving gigantic purple radishes (some a half-metre long) for the Noche de Rábanos. Saints, animals, revolutionary heroes and Jesus are among regular depictions. The best win prizes and the finale is accompanied by fireworks, light shows and concerts. It's an ephemeral art, since the carved radishes wilt within a day. See

Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire is host to this alarming competition on the last Monday of May, which sees giant wheels of cheese chased downhill. Since the cheeses roll at up to 100kph and the hill is steep, mayhem ensues and injuries (including broken bones) aren't uncommon. In fact, the race is so dangerous that it's no longer officially organised. First one down the hill wins a fine Double Gloucester. See

In Haro in the famed Rioja wine region in late June locals spray wine over each other from anything that comes to hand, including bottles, buckets and water pistols. Everyone wears white T-shirts just to highlight the mess, and nobody is immune. It's the fun finale of a week-long wine festival, and apparently has its origins in a real mediaeval dispute over town boundaries. See

Minnesota produces plenty of potatoes and in Barnesville in late August you can celebrate the bounty in peculiar ways, from a golden potato scavenger hunt to a fun run, a potato peeling competition to potato sculpting. And who hasn't dreamed of wrestling in mashed potato with a strapping Minnesota farmer? There's also a parade, dog show and assortment of other American small-town fun. See

Fishing town Port Lincoln in South Australia celebrates everything tuna in this three-day January festival. There are also arts and culture events and amusing sports such as slippery-pole, keg-rolling and prawn-peeling competitions, as well as sprint races. The signature event is the tuna toss, which these days uses a rubber tuna. You'll have to toss it well over 20 metres to be in the running for a prize. See

This Japan-wide festival in early February celebrates the arrival of spring with a good clean-out to get rid of bad spirits. The throwing of soybeans symbolises purity and vitality. Don't be alarmed if residents dressed as demons come shouting from their houses to scatter beans. Beans are also thrown at temples and shrines, with an especially big event at Senso-ji Temple in Tokyo that attracts crowds of merrymakers. See