What to Wear (and What to Sacrifice)

Everything you take into that square gets destroyed, soaked or both. Plan accordingly and the hour is hilarious; plan badly and it is an hour of stinging eyes and a ruined phone.

Wear

Clothes you will throw in a bin afterwards - a white t-shirt is traditional and will not be white again. Closed shoes with a strap or laces: the ground turns to pulp soup and flip-flops are lost in minutes. Swimming goggles - the single best piece of advice on this page. Tomato is acidic; an hour of it in your eyes is genuinely painful.

Do not bring

Anything you would mourn. Phones survive only in a sealed waterproof pouch, and even then the touchscreen fights you with wet hands - many regulars leave the phone with the coach and accept that the photos will come from someone else. Watches, jewellery, and glasses without a strap all get lost.

Afterwards

Locals and businesses hose people down in the streets and there are public showers set up; you will still be pink and seedy for hours. Bring a full change of clothes and a bin bag to seal the old set in - the coach operators expect this, and the day trips build the timing around it.

The list, compressed

Old clothes · closed shoes · goggles · sealed pouch or no phone · change of clothes · bin bag · and no expectations about staying clean.