The L-Istrina campaign has no plans to refuse funds raised from the Fgura tomato fight on Sunday despite complaints that the event will waste food and water resources.
About 2,000kg of “lower quality” tomatoes will be used in the fight, which is the headline attraction at the Fgura Arts and Food Fighting Festival.
Tomato chuckers will each give a donation to L-Istrina, the fundraising campaign for the Community Chest Fund.
On Tuesday, hydrologist Marco Cremona called on L-Istrina to disassociate itself from the event and not accept any donations arising from it.
Estimating that at least 400,000 litres of water would have been used to cultivate 2,000 kg of tomatoes, Mr Cremona said the event gave the mistaken impression that Malta was self-sufficient in food and water.
Expressing amazement that 2,000kg of “poor quality” tomatoes could be ordered in advance, Mr Cremona added: “It is debatable whether Malta should be producing high-water consuming vegetables in summer at all; let alone tonnes of ‘poor quality’ vegetables, which will now go to such extravagant use”.
But a spokesman for President George Abela, who chairs the Community Chest Fund, referred to statements by Fgura mayor Byron Camilleri that the tomatoes were not of good quality and would not be put on the market for sale.
The event, the mayor added, would be a fun way to help charity. “The Malta Community Chest Fund will leave it in the hands of the local council to ensure there is no wastage of resources,” the President’s spokesman said.
The event has generated fervent debate online, with timesofmalta.com readers divided between those who support Mr Cremona’s stance and those who see the tomato fight as harmless fun.
In response to numerous comments criticising the event for copying the famous La Tomatina in Buñol, Spain, a reader, Colin Attard, suggested the authorities organise “something truly Maltese... a Ġemġem (grumble) Weekend. No one in the whole wide world can ever beat us and it even might boost specialised tourism, Grumble Tourism.”
Sunday’s Fgura Arts and Food Fighting Festival will be held in Valperga Street, below the bastions, from 5 till 11 p.m.
The tomato fight will take place in a confined, plastic-covered area of 12 metres by 15 metres, with roughly 80 people taking part at a time, on rotation.
The tomatoes were bought by Fgura council for €400 from a group of farmers using a €5,000 grant it received from the Local Government Department to organise the charity event.
Besides the tomato fight, there will be a children’s area, food and drink stalls and top local bands including MsLeads, Ivan Filletti and Friends, and Airport Impressions.
In the past four years the government has handed out almost €1 million to local councils to organise 222 cultural events.