Gilroy Garlic Festival

With a name like the Gilroy Garlic Festival, you now the main focus is going to be on food, food and more food. There is plenty of entertainment and fun as well, but be sure to come hungry. The attendance for 2008 was over 100,000 and there was food for everyone. When you attend the Gilroy Garlic Festival, your money goes to support more than 160 local non profit organizations.

Gourmet Alley is all about food. There are 60 different vendors and a wine gallery to boot. Some of the food choices include stuffed mushrooms, peppersteak sandwiches, pasta con pesto, calamari, scampi, Italian sausage sandwiches, garlic bread and garlic fries. You can find the chefs from Gourmet Alley giving demonstrations and sharing their recipes at the Demonstration Stage.

The Great Garlic Cook-off is one of the highlights of the festival and it takes almost 7 months of work to pull it all together. They start in December by advertising for garlic recipes and get responses from hundreds of amateur chefs.

They pick about 50 or so of the most interesting recipes and send them to a professional food consultant who chooses the 8 finalists. The winners come to Gilroy and prepare their dishes in front of the crowd and have them judged by a panel of celebrity judges. The winner gets a crown of garlic and a prize of $1,000, second prize is $750 and third $500.

The Children's Area is a place full of games, crafts, stories and of course food. This year they have a Mediaeval theme complete with dragons. The kids can enjoy face painting, wax hands, rides and jump houses and arts and crafts. Kid friendly food includes pretzels, sodas, hot dogs and soft frozen lemonade.

There will be dozens upon dozens of artists and crafts people
showing, demonstrating and selling. It is a juried show which means in order to be able to participate, the artists and craftsmen have to pass a selection process which assures that each of them has unique one of a kind items.

Every festival has to have a queen and the Gilroy Garlic Festival is no exception. The Queen is chosen by a panel of
five judges based on on personal interview, talent, garlic speech and evening gown competitions. The pageant is open to young women 18 to 24 years of age who are residents of Gilroy, Hollister, San Juan Bautista, San Martin, Morgan Hill or Aromas. The contest is held before the actual festival because the Queen and her Court will be at the festival all three days.

Gilroy Garlic Festival
Christmas Hill Park,
Gilroy CA 95021
July 24, 25 and 26 2009