A Juicy Battle at Ivrea

Ivrea is a small city about 40 minutes North of Turin. It was the headquarters of the first (short-lived) post-Roman kingdom of Italy, around 1000 a.D. Every year Ivrea awakes one winter morning in February with an incredible weight of expectation. Usually calm, the town quickly becomes a cauldron of sensory when a unique, exciting, anachronistic and most of all juicy orange battle takes place. This annual battle is named ‘The Orange Ivrea Festival'. 

The Orange Ivrea Festival is a festival in the Northern Italian city of Ivrea, which includes a tradition of throwing of oranges between organized groups. It is the largest food fight in Italy. To celebrate this festival, Ivrea's government provides 400 tons of oranges from north Italia. This battle is held to attract the tourists who want to join on this battle as participants or audiences. 

This festive is celebrated every 25 until 28 February. The festival dates back to the legendary twelve century people's revolt against Count Ranieri of Biandrate. It is thought to be originated from 19th century when the citizen protest to the government by throwing foods on the street. In the past, apples and nuts were used for this battle. But in early 20th century, it was changed to oranges. 

This unique battle also has unique rules. First, the participants will divided into 18 teams. The teams included 9 teams of women and 9 teams of men. Then, all of the participants must be dressed in colourful costumes. These costumes must represent their team. After that, the women teams will throw the oranges from the top of a train. Then, the men team that walk on the road will respond by throwing oranges to the women teams. The winner team is chosen by festive judge based on their throwing technique and costumes. 

If you don't want to join this battle, just simply wear red hat. The red hat means you won't be throwing oranges and therefore no one will throw oranges at you. If you're near the battle areas (even if you're behind the protective nets) you'll still get orange shrapnel, but no direct hits. Then, if you change your mind, you must go into the battle areas, remove your hat, and take part in the battle. 

Although the committee says that this battle is safe, they still provide first aid tent. 100 workers are also needed to clean the sticky oranges all over the street. Every year, about 10.000 people participates in this battle. This makes this festival become the biggest food war in Italy.