World's Wackiest Food Festivals

What's rumored to have originated as a local brawl (possibly an attack on city council members by disgruntled townspeople) in Buñol, Spain, has turned into the world's largest food fight, with some 45,000 revelers hurling more than 250,000 pounds of tomatoes at one another the last Wednesday in August.

Prefer to eat your tomatoes? Try one of these 30-minute tomato recipes.

Going on its 50th year, the main attraction at the Tunarama, held the weekend nearest to Australia Day (January 26) in Port Lincoln, Australia, is the World Champion Tuna Toss Competition, where participants hurl a roughly 20-pound tuna. The record — approximately 40 yards — was set in 1998 by a pro: former Olympic hammer thrower Sean Carlin.

If eating tuna is more your thing, try one of these canned tuna recipes.

Once every two years in February, Chinchilla — the "Melon Capital of Australia" (their watermelon accounts for 25 percent of the nation's crop) — celebrates the bounty with a messy melon-strewn street parade and "sports" like seed spitting, melon tossing, and skiing with feet embedded in the fruit.

Save the tossing for the pros, and try some of these melon recipes at home.

Sure, the Maine Lobster Festival, held the first full weekend in August each year in Rockland, Maine, steams up some 20,000 pounds of lobster. But the other great attraction is the Great International William Atwood Lobster Crate Race (pictured), where participants run across a makeshift "bridge" of partially submerged lobster crates in the Atlantic. The current record of 4,501 crates was set in 2008 by then 12-year-old Andrew Bachiochi from Connecticut.

Prepare a whole meal around this festival's main attraction with our grilled lobster menu.

Attendees of this festival held by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh dare themselves to eat insect dishes prepared by local chefs — and cheer on bugs at the Roach Race 5000.

Ellsworth, Wisconsin, the self-proclaimed "Cheese Curd Capital," hosts a cheese curd eating contest and cheese carving competition every last full weekend in June in celebration of the century-old Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery and the town's proud dairy tradition.

It might not be carved into sculptures, but you can still learn how to perfectly pair cheese with wine.

What began more than 500 years ago with one woman's attempt to finish making pancakes has turned into a 415-yard dash in Olney, UK, every year on the Tuesday before Lent, with contestants in aprons carrying skillets. In 1950, the townsfolk of Liberal, Kansas, started their own pancake-day race.

Celebrate this international holiday at home by making your own buttermilk pancakes.

The residents of Gloucestershire, England, are so gung-ho about continuing their more than decades–old cheese-rolling tradition that they held an unofficial roll of semi-hard, unpasteurized Double Gloucester cheese down Coopers Hill this year even after the event was officially cancelled. It's usually held on the last Monday in May.

If you'd rather eat your cheese, try it in some of these gooey grilled cheese recipes.

While the food at this festival, which takes place the last Saturday of September in Marlinton, West Virginia, doesn't actually involve real roadkill, the dishes are prepared with the kinds of animals that often meet their end in traffic accidents. Specialties have included "South-of-the-Border Mishap" — tacos filled with armadillo, roadrunner, and the mysteriously dubbed "hitchhiker."

Though wacky garlicky items (garlic lollipops, garlic soft drinks, and garlic ice cream) are served and Miss Gilroy Garlic is crowned, there's also a serious side to this Gilroy, California, festival that takes place every last full weekend of July: It seeks to promote sustainable and local foods.

Try a winning recipe from the festival at home: Walnut-Garlic Tart with Garlic-Infused Cream and Chili Syrup.

This Heritage Festival takes place every January during the height of the lettuce season in Yuma, Arizona, in a region that accounts for more than 90 percent of the country's winter vegetable crops. The celebration includes bowling with heads of cabbage, along with a lettuce sculpture competition and the Southwest's longest salad bar (pictured).

Put all that lettuce to use with these fresh and filling salad recipes.

Despite being the ninth smallest state in terms of population, Hawaii consumes more Spam — some 7 million cans annually — than any other state in the country. Fittingly, there's an annual Spam celebration, usually held on the last Saturday of April, in Waikiki, with dishes prepared with Spam by local chefs. Cans of Spam are also collected to benefit the Hawaii Food Bank.

Proud of their Polish heritage (and with an uninhibited sense of humor), the women of Whiting, Indiana, dress up the last full weekend in July like their bushas (grannies) — in housecoats, curlers, and head scarves — to parade down the street dancing the polka, led by emcee Mr. Pierogi and other food characters, including Ms. Paczki (a Polish jelly donut).

You don't have to be Polish to enjoy this festival's namesake: Try these easy pierogi recipes.

Check out more of what the world has to offer with these roundups from Food & Wine:

World's Weirdest Restaurants

Take a Trip, Save a Landmark Village

World's Most Beautiful Dining Rooms