Heavy machinery is used as Encinitas lifeguards work to remove the carcass of a large humpback whale that washed ashore in Leucadia, California, United States, July 18, 2016. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

A surfer rides a large wave at El Bocal during the Vaca Gigante (Big Cow) giant wave surf competition in Santander, northern Spain December 17, 2016. (Photo by Vincent West/Reuters)

Large waves crash onto seafront at Tynemouth in the North East, UK late Sunday afternoon on October 15, 2023. (Photo by Ian Sproat/Picture Exclusive)

An animal rights activist from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) hands out bananas to motorists at an intersection in Bangkok, Thailand, 12 February 2015. Activists called on people turn to vegetarian saying the cholesterol in meat, eggs and daily products can contribute to hardening of arteries and slow the flow of blood to all the body's vital organs. (Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA)

Revellers dressed in mock military garb take part in the “Els Enfarinats” battle in the southeastern Spanish town of Ibi on December 28, 2017. During this 200-year-old traditional festival participants known as Els Enfarinats (those covered in flour) dress in military clothes and stage a mock coup d'etat as they battle using flour, eggs and firecrackers outside the town hall as part of the celebrations of the Day of the Innocents. (Photo by Jaime Reina/AFP Photo)

It’s a classic tale of dictatorship gone wrong and the fight for freedom. Like in any good battle, there’s fire, albeit from firecrackers, but the ammunition in this one is – flour. It takes place in a Hemingway-esque Spanish village. The battle of “Enfarinats” in celebration of the Els Enfarinats festival, rages on on December 28, 2012 in Ibi, Spain. Citizens of Ibi annually celebrate the festival with a fight using flour, eggs and firecrackers. The battle takes place between two groups, a group of married men called “Els Enfarinats” who take the control of the village for one day pronouncing a number of ridiculous laws and fining the citizens that infringe them and a group called “La Oposicio” who try to restore order. At the end of the day the money collected from the fines is donated to charitable causes in the village. The festival has been celebrated since 1981 after the town of Ibi recovered the tradition but the origins remain unknown.

Photo: A Reveller smokes during the battle of “Enfarinats”, a flour fight in celebration of the Els Enfarinats festival. (Photo by David Ramos)

Tulane University graduates pop prosecco as they pose for graduation photos on a largely empty Bourbon Street, due to the coronavirus pandemic, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Tuesday, May 12, 2020. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

A young devotee of the Nine Emperor Gods has a large needle pushed through his cheek during the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival in the southern province of Phuket on October 1, 2016. (Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP Photo)