Remember when finger painting, making mud pies and having a good old fashioned food fight weren't just acceptable activities, but expected? Sometimes, even as an adult, it's good to get down and dirty. Below are some of our favorite festivals where being a hot mess is mandatory. 

La Tomatina (Spain)

La Tomatina is probably the most famous of messy festivals, mostly because it's a bunch of naked people who look like they’re bleeding profusely, yet having the time of their lives. For safety reasons, tomatoes must be squished before they're thrown, but that makes it even messier.

Boryeong Mud Festival (South Korea)

The largest messy festival in the world, this seaside event attracts a few million people. The good news about this mess-fest is that the mud has great minerals for your skin so you can get a facial while you're pelting your friends with the mucky stuff.

Punkin Chunkin (United States)

This post-Halloween festival in Delaware is dedicated to seeing who can toss a pumpkin the longest distance using various forms of leverage artillery, from air cannons to catapults, to centrifugals and trebuchets. Proceeds from the nonprofit festival go to scholarships, and each year, Punkin Chunkin donates all the remaining edible pumpkins to farmers to feed to their animals. Shooting pumpkins has resulted in over $1 million in donations since 2000.

Glastonbury (UK)

It's one of the biggest and most famous music festivals in the world, but it's also one of the muddiest. With over 175,000 festival-goers each year tromping across the fields of Worthy Farm during England's characteristically wet summers, it's no wonder that rain boots and ponchos are worn by almost everyone who attends. Mud fights and people literally stuck in the mud are common sights annually. Glastonbury is the granddaddy of music festivals in the UK, and it was modeled after the huge success of Woodstock; many of the world's biggest stars perform at Glastonbury each year.

World Bogsnorkelling Championships (Wales)

Fortunately, spectators don’t get bog slime on them when the competitors emerge from their race through a peat bog, but it’s definitely an “ooohh, yuck!” kind of spectator sport. Competitors race along two lengths of a 60-yard trench cut through the peat bog. Required equipment amounts to a mask or goggles, snorkel and flippers. Because conventional swimming strokes (like crawl, breast stroke, butterfly) are not allowed, flipper power is the only way to get from beginning to end. There's also a Novelty category, which sees costumed participants struggling through the bog in hopes of not only winning the race, but winning a trophy for "Best Costume," as well.

Holi (India)

If you happen to be in India, Nepalor Sri Lanka during the last lunar cycle of the winter, called Phalguna (usually in February or March), you just might get caught in a rainbow battlefield at the Holi festival of colors. Throngs of celebrants fling every imaginable type of brightly colored dye in the form of powder, liquid and water balloons at each other in an all ­out war. It’s a wildly immersive and participatory festival, as everyone gets involved, from young to old. Holi is celebrated all over the region from intimate celebrations at home to enormous street parties exploding with color. It’s very photogenic, but be warned: We lost a camera to a paint­-filled water balloon on the streets of Delhi.

World Custard Pie Championship (UK)

Started in 1967, this festival was inspired by a city council member’s favorite Charlie Chaplin film. If you attend this festival hoping for dessert, you should know that the custard in the pie has a special filling that makes it better for flinging and hurling than for eating. The rules are simple. The teams of four are drawn against each other and score points depending on where their thrown pie hits a member of the opposing team. Every player must throw with their left hand. A full six points for a pie in the face. Three points from the shoulder up and one point for any other part of the body. A player who misses three times has points deducted.

La Merengada (Spain)

Also known as Batalla de Caramelos (Candy Fight), this sweet celebration happens each year through Ash Wednesday in a small town near Barcelona. People each cod fish with red pepper sauce and then work off the meal by throwing their meringue dessert at each other. Once the meringue is gone, the candy starts flying. It's an all-day food fight!

Burning Man (United States)

Epic dust storms that roll through Black Rock City on the regular earn Burning Man a spot on this list – the video above shows them in all their elegant ferocity. The playa's special alkaline dust gets in places you never thought dust could get, and when you return from home from the burn, you'll spend weeks getting the dust off of your wardrobe and your gear.

La Raima Grape Throwing Festival (Spain)

You've probably noticed that the Spanish love their weird festivals. This festival happens in Valencia around the same time of year as La Tomatina but includes 50 tons of locally grown grapes, to signal the end of the grape harvest. Bring a change of clothes!

Haro Wine Festival (Spain)

The Wine Battle in Haro, Spain  has been going on since a land dispute erupted in the 10 ^th century. Everyone wears white, but by the end of the day, violet is the predominant color on everybody's backs. Every year on June 29th, this small town in northern Spain hosts a grape bash and splash to celebrate its numerous wineries attended by thousands of purple partying tourists and wine soaked locals alike. From bullfighting to wine-tasting to shirt soaking, there’s a mood and temperament for everyone at Haro, as long as you like wine.

Wasserschlacht (Germany)

Each summer since 1998, on the last Sunday in July, two battling districts in Berlin (Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg) create a massive water fight that escalates to include includes eggs, flour and all kinds of fruit being tossed – the unofficial rule is that anything you throw must be either rotten or cooked. This all happens on the Oberbaumbrucke Bridge which has been feared to collapse given how many celebrants pack the structure for this wild event.

Battle of the Oranges (Italy)

A little less messy than La Tomatina, the Carnival of Ivrea is the pre-Lent free-for-all in the beautiful Italian city of Ivrea. This event has much more history and arcane rules associated with it than its Spanish cousin and it’s a more unique visual, given the costumes involved. Entire wagonloads of oranges arrive by train (500,000 kilgrams total!), only to be thrown like hand missiles by the town's men in a food fight that's a re-creation of a historic battle between townsfolk and a ruling tyrant. Teams wage a full-on fruit war, and not even a red-capped declaration of sovereignty can protect you from getting juiced.