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Phone: 800-863-1922 / 408-863-1922
Gilroy Garlic Festival
Gilroy Garlic Festival Association , Inc.
7473 Monterey Street Gilroy, CA 95020
(408) 842-1625
Early History
Since 1979 the little town of Gilroy has been putting on one of the countries largest food festivals. The Gilroy Garlic Festival brings in more than 100,000 people per year to this three day event. The festival is held annually the last full weekend in July and provides a great source of income to support the community projects, charitable groups and service organizations of Gilroy.
Dr. Rudy Melone came up with the idea after reading an article about a garlic festival in Arleux, France. Arleux claimed to be Garlic Capital of the World and this didn't sit well with Dr. Melone who knew local garlic production and processing far surpassed that of any other area. In mid-November 1978 Don Christopher, Dr. Rudy Melone, and Val Filice put on a Rotary Club luncheon to bring attention to how important the Garlic industry was to the local economy. Don Christopher provided his ranch as the luncheon location and Val Filice prepared all the garlic dishes. The luncheon was a huge success and paved the way for the annual garlic festival.
The First Festival (1979)
In 1979 Don Christopher and Dr. Rudy Melone pushed for and incorporated the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association, a non-profit organization. The first festival was held at the Bloomfield Ranch in August, 1979 and Dr. Rudy Melone became the first Garlic Festival President. Funded with borrowed money and planned by a small committee with high hopes that first festival netted $19,000.
Only 5,000 tickets were printed but more than 15,000 people showed up. Since only 5,000 tickets were printed, volunteers sold tickets, then collected them and ran back to the ticket booth to reuse them.
Val Filice was appointed head chef of Gourmet Alley, the heart of the festival. As the festival ran out of food he ordered volunteers to drive to nearby cities and pick up more supplies to help feed the unexpected crowd.
Mr. Garlic 1979 - Bob Kraemer
Miss Gilroy Garlic 1979 - Katie Bendel Volunteers
Volunteers
The Gilroy Garlic Festival Association is a non-profit corporation. They support the community projects, charitable groups and service organizations of Gilroy. In 2006 over 4,000 volunteers from 169 non-profit groups worked 41,723 hours to host the Annual Garlic Festival. $253,000 was distributed to mostly local non-profit organizations. From 1979 through 2006 the success of the annual festival has awarded over $7.5 million to these charities.
Volunteers of the festival pick up trash, cook food, serve drinks, paint faces, coordinate entertainment, sell admission tickets, set up, tear down and facilitate and even direct traffic. Hours worked are calculated and then each volunteer's organization is given credit for the time they work.
Gourmet Alley
The heart of the Gilroy Garlic Festival is the world-famous Gourmet Alley. This is where the Pyro Chefs, cook up garlic-laced food in front of five foot high flames with their huge iron skillets. Gourmet Alley is also home to hundreds of dedicated volunteers that help prepare the famous foods such as penne con pesto, stuffed mushrooms, pepper steak sandwiches, garlic sausage sandwiches, pacific rim garlic chicken stir fry, and, of course, garlic bread.
When going to the fextival Gourmet Alley is a must visit and should be your main stop in the search for great garlic foods.
Gourmet Alley 2006 numbers: (number represent servings)
Garlic Beard 16,485
Calamari 3,977
Garlic Sausage Sandwich 3,435
Stuffed Mushrooms 8,810
Scampi 5,916
Penne Con Pesto 3,948
Combo Plates 8,984
Pepper Steak Sandwich 10,391
Tickets: (2007)
General - $12
Seniors 60 and over -$6
Children 6 to 12 - $6
Under 6 - Free
*Tickets are sold at the gate.
Garlic Fun Facts:
-The average household uses four pounds of garlic per year.
-Approximately 90 percent of the garlic grown in the United States is grown in California.
-The psychological term for fear of garlic is alliumphobia.
-Garlic is said to fight off evil spirits and keep vampires away.
-Garlic is a member of the onion family which also includes leeks and shallots.
-April 19th is National Garlic Day.
ADDITIONAL INFO