Throw tomatoes, listen to local bands at Tomato Battle 2011 

When handed a spoiled tomato, most people will just dump it in the garbage or onto a compost pile. Others must fight the urge to hurl it at something or somebody. The organizers of Tomato Battle 2011 cater to the latter demographic of spoiled-produce-chucking miscreants, with a festival that delivers everything its title implies: Organizers will truck a whopping 150 tons of overripe tomatoes from southern Arizona, dump them into a parking lot filled with 1,500 or so folks pumped up on beer and local music, and let the inevitable play itself out. Battle festivities kick off June 25 at noon at Copper Mountain Ski Resort. Things are going to get messy.

You could get in a self-righteous lather about starving children and the gratuitous waste of resources in a frivolous event, but save your beef for the agriculture industry: The ammunition used in the battle was spoiled and unfit for consumption before event organizers got their hands on it, and they plan to do the environmentally responsible thing and compost the waste afterward. 

“Bobcats and pressure washers and shovels,” battle organizer Clint Nelsen explains. “It takes a whole crew of people to get it done. It helps that it’s on a parking-lot surface—a flat, hard surface makes it easier.”

The Tomato Battle’s more than a fruit-chucking frenzy. Each festivalgoer receives his or her first beer on the house—inebriation and tomato-flinging go hand-in-hand, naturally—and local acts Meniskus and RePlay are on the bill to provide sets before and after the battle. Keeping with the combative nature of the event, organizers will select a headlining act in a virtual battle of the bands based on the event’s Facebook wall. Contending bands simply need to post a video of themselves on the wall; a winner will be chosen based partially on the number of likes each video receives. So, yes, it’s a bit of a social-media popularity contest. Bands have until Saturday, June 18 to enter.

The winner won’t be subjected to a rain of rotten tomatoes as they play the event’s stage, though, so vote and enter accordingly. “We’re trying to avoid that,” Nelsen said “[The battlefield] is a couple hundred yards away from the stage. It’s a separate area for the battle area, and then people walk back to the band area, to avoid the potential of throwing tomatoes at bands. People would, you know, if given the option.”