Wine & Water Battles

Spain must be a country where the god of wine feels at home. The country not only produces some of Europe's finest wines, there are also some fiestas that are celebrated with Dionysian extasy. Next week the famous wine battle of Haro takes place. The origins of the fiesta go back to medieval times, when the villages of Haro and Miranda de Ebro used to have some conflicts. At the battle of wine the participants throw thousands of litres of wine at each other.Similar fiestas, but not as bad for your clothes, are the water battles in Vallecas (Madrid, half July) and Vilagarcia de Arousa (Galicia, half of August).