“IT’S not quite La Tomatina, but Newcastle will host its own tomato festival in Honeysuckle this month.

A whopping 700kilograms of the rich red fruit will be turned into passata (fresh tomato puree) on Saturday at the waterfront precinct adjacent to the Maritime Museum for the inaugural Newcastle Tomato Festival.

Punters at the free event will be urged to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into making the thick tomato sauce, which is traditionally made by Italian families to preserve the last of the summer crop for the winter months. ‘‘Mothers, fathers, grandparents, kids and everyone in between will be able to blanch, squeeze and bottle this beautiful taste of summer on one of the most beautiful locations in Newcastle,’’ event organiser Rita Dixon from My Father’s Table said.

Once the passata is made, festival goers will be able to have a taste, with the sauce tossed through pasta made with garlic from Moore Wollombi Garlic. There’ll be virgin Bloody Marys on offer, made using a secret recipe.”