If there was a recipe for one of the best Gilroy Garlic
Festivals yet, the ingredients that went into this year’s may take
the cake.
If there was a recipe for one of the best Gilroy Garlic Festivals yet, the ingredients that went into this year’s may take the cake.
Volunteers and visitors alike credited temperatures in the 80s, a well-behaved crowd and a beefed up entertainment roster as elements that made for a great last day of the 32nd Garlic Festival and the crowds were waiting at the gates when the festival opened for the third, and final, day.
Some of the first in line were Gerd and Richter Ute from Bremen, Germany. Although the couple is miles away from home, this is the Utes family’s seventh Garlic Festival.
The couple has never tried the garlic ice cream. They don’t plan to.
“I think it’s a joke,” said Richter Ute.
The Utes weren’t the only out-of-town-visitors with an opinion on the garlic ice cream. Festival goers Mike Ngo and Tina Huang came from San Francisco to see the festival.
“It was worth the drive,” said Huang who held garlic ice cream in one hand and garlic fries in the other.
“We heard about the garlic ice cream,” said Ngo, who held a beer and an ice cream. “It’s actually pretty good.”
Though many volunteers predicted a record-breaking year in terms of attendance, Festival President Greg Bozzo said a preliminary count showed that overall attendance numbers were down from last year, with about 100,000 attendees compared to last year’s 108,000.
“But I’m not interested in the fact that we might be down,” he said after the last visitor had left the park. “I’m interested in the fact that we might be down but people are spending money. People were spending money like crazy.”
The combination of tacking an extra $5 onto the ticket price and the lackluster economy could be reasons for the dip in attendance, Bozzo said. But what the festival’s attendance may have lacked in quantity – relatively speaking – it made up for in quality and those that did come stayed and spent money, he said.
“I was extremely pleased,” Bozzo said. “I don’t mind if we’re trending toward a smaller crowd. As long as their spending the bucks, that’s the crowd we want.”
While visitors enjoyed food, live entertainment and the countless arts and crafts booths, volunteers such as Carlos Alferez cooked. Alferez directed the production of garlic sausage sandwiches on Gourmet Alley this weekend. In three days, his 30-person crew will make an estimated 8,000 sandwiches, he said.
Alferez is the senior pastor of Jubilee South Valley in Morgan Hill and his church is one of many nonprofits that benefit from the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
“We take the sausages and prep them on skewers,” he said pointing to volunteers cooking sausages over a charcoal fire. Next to the grill, a volunteer sauteed peppers in olive oil and seasoning.
After visitors grabbed garlicky food, many tried their hand at garlic braiding inside a ring of hay bales next to the Garlic Cook-Off stage. Visitors also watch garlic topping races where workers try to remove the leaves from as many garlic bulbs as possible in a certain amount of time.
The queen and her court took time to pose for pictures and meet festival goers before the contest began.
“I’ve done everything there is to do at the Garlic Festival – except rock climbing. That’s still on my list,” said first runner up Tiffani Petersen.
While Princess Petersen has not yet climbed the rock wall, eight-year-old Christopher Disibio scaled the festival rock wall and enjoyed the challenge.
“It was a little hard. I couldn’t get my arms and legs over to the other rocks,” he said.
His parents were pleased with the festival.
“Its great,” said Nancy Disibio.”Ice cream, fries, escargot, shrimp, sausage,” she said listing her favorite festival foods.
Although most festival goers remarked it was not as hot as they expected, children still enjoyed the Rain Room, a giant tent with water misters.
“I really like it,” said 10-year-old Brian Giacomaro. “I’m not hot now.”
Brian’s parents, Chris and Veronika Giacomaro happened to be near in the area and decided to take their family to the festival. The family visited the rides in the children section and created a water bottle terrarium for sunflower seeds.
Like the Giocomaros, volunteers commented on the weekend’s beautiful weather.
“We are the perfect temperature this year,” said Leighan Perales, program director for the Gilroy Foundation, which runs a booth that sells wine coolers and mimosas. “Too hot and people are only drinking water. Too cold and they’re not drinking much of anything.”
Perales estimated sales at her booth were up 20 percent as compared to last year thanks to the Garlic Festival Association’s efforts to attract visitors to the park side of the festival, which is hosted every year at Christmas Hill Park. Amid new colorful yellow, orange and red flags, a large shade tent with picnic tables and the Cook-Off stage, the Gilroy Foundation’s booth had prime real estate, Perales said.
“The Festival tried to get more people to come to this side and it seems to be working,” she said, indicating the line that remained a constant six or so customers deep at their window. “The line never stops.”
Perales was pleasantly surprised earlier that day when the Garlic Festival Association awarded the Gilroy Foundation the 2010 Gilroy Garlic Festival Vendor Award to best nonprofit. As part of the festival’s push to “go green,” the Gilroy Foundation poured their refreshing iced libations into compostable cups.
Throughout the park, volunteers’ faces mirrored the same easygoing smile that lit up Perales’.
“There are always a few little hitches but the majority of the time, we’re doing just fine,” said Julian Aguilar, 72, who has volunteered at the festival since its earliest days. “It’s been so long I’ve forgotten half the things I’ve done. I’ve done it all.”
His nose wrinkled, Aguilar remembered back to the days when he picked up garbage at the festival. These days he’s moved up and enjoyed a patch of shade behind the Cook-Off stage during the Garlic Showdown, where he checked corporate sponsors and other VIPs into the hospitality area.
“We try to give them a nice atmosphere, have them take a load off,” Aguilar said. “We’re just one happy family.”
About the same time Aguilar was welcoming vendors behind stage, critically acclaimed Bay Area chef Ryan Scott was accepting an oversized $5,000 check on-stage as the winner of this year’s Garlic Showdown. With sous chef Evan Rich, Scott, last year’s Showdown winner and a former contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef series, competed against three other celebrity chefs and came out on top with his “Perplexed Portobello.” Using this year’s secret ingredient – mushrooms – Scott went vegetarian and let the secret ingredient shine, instead of using it to compliment a more traditional protein.
“This was the most I’ve ever sweat in my life,” Scott joked, with check in hand and a wide grin across his face. “I sat there and said ‘Oh my God, what are we going to do?'”
The charismatic chef and owner of a Ryan Scott 2 Go, a San Francisco catering company, reeled in the judges with a mushroom steak served with mushroom salsa verde and sauteed Yukon gold potatoes.
“It was our ode to steak,” Scott said.
Showdown judge Gene Sakahara, who is no stranger to the Cook-Off stage himself, said he picked Scott’s dish because the chef didn’t just feature the secret ingredient, he built the rest of the dish around it.
“One of the things (Scott) learned is that you have to use garlic but you have to emphasize the secret ingredient,” Sakahara said. “It was all delicious.”
From what police reported, festival goers were too busy enjoying the shows on the Cook-Off stage, trying the food at Gourmet Alley or snapping their fingers to one of the many entertainment acts to act up themselves. As of 4 p.m. police hadn’t made any arrests Sunday and reported no fights, though they did have to remove a few revelers for minor violations, like not wearing shirts or bringing in outside food or drink.
“Today’s been real slow,” said Sgt. Joseph Deras. “It’s not like any other Festival Sunday we’ve had.”
Emergency calls for service were also down from last year with 17 on Friday, 28 on Saturday and about a dozen as of 5 p.m. Sunday, said Randy Wong, chairman of emergency services. Typically, his crew receives about 50 calls for service on the Saturday of the festival, Wong said. The majority of calls this year were for twisted ankles and heat exhaustion, he said.
“We have a good crowd, great weather,” Wong said. “It’s been a really cool Garlic Festival.”
