Every year, on the 16th August, the small town of Vilagarcia de Arousa in northwest Spain holds host to the great water festival of San Roque. Coinciding with the feast of San Roque, the water festivities begin a quarter of an hour after the religious celebration during which the saint's statue is carried through the streets. Water then descends upon the crowd from all angles; fire engines, water-hydrants, hoses, buckets, even balloons.

The story behind the festival goes back ten years to a period of extended drought. At the time, the town's people beseeched the help of their patron saint...