With the mercury rising and a famous pungent smell wafting
through Hollister’s neighbor to the north today, the Gilroy Garlic
Festival began its 26th celebration.
With the mercury rising and a famous pungent smell wafting through Hollister’s neighbor to the north today, the Gilroy Garlic Festival began its 26th celebration.
Weather forecasts predict temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s for the weekend long event. Any coastal clouds should burn off by the time the gates open, but sea breezes are expected to kick up in the afternoons.
“People will come to the festival regardless and in an odd sense the heat makes it fun,” President John Zekanoski said.
Earlier this week volunteers got down and dirty at Christmas Hill Park as they pieced together the infrastructure of the festival. They began raising the tents, cleaning equipment and preparing the flame-up area of Gourmet Alley.
Private contractors also were hired to complete the tasks which require a higher level of expertise beyond the average Garlic Festival Association volunteer. They have set up about 20 telephone lines, distributed temporary electrical power and water to all the vendor booths and set the 260 port-o-potties into position.
The Festival Association held a final pre-festival meeting Wednesday evening to review progress with all the committees and discuss Friday’s opening. Committee members are pleased with the work so far and are ahead of schedule Zekanoski said.
Even his own schedule won’t pick up until the festival begins. He has done a few media interviews but expects to be busiest Friday morning. In the meantime he has been making the rounds at the festival, checking in with volunteers and thanking them for their efforts.
The smooth set-up was interrupted for a short time Wednesday afternoon when a garbage truck caught fire and was forced to dump its load on the Ranch side parking lot Wednesday afternoon to hose down the trash.
The ash and briquettes discarded in the park’s general trash caused the fire, according to Gilroy Fire Department Capt. Colin Martin. There are bins throughout Christmas Hill Park designated for barbecue ash to avoid such incidents. The contents were smoking and flaming, but firefighters quickly took control of the situation. The site was clean in a few hours.
Outside of the park, volunteers have been busy preparing food. Most of the ingredients were delivered to the park Thursday. The pasta and cream sauce for the new pesto dish already were cooked in the Salinas School District kitchen, which has a facility large enough to prepare the ingredients. The noodles will be refrigerated in five-gallon buckets. At the festival this weekend, pasta chefs won’t need to wait for another batch of pasta to boil and orders can be made on demand.
Gilroy High School choir members and a few parents gathered at Rod Kelley Elementary School to get a head start on the seafood cleanup for Gourmet Alley. They rolled up their sleeves, grabbed the hoses and started scrubbing nearly 400 buckets which will hold the shrimp and squid – two Gourmet Alley staple dishes. Despite the heat, the group didn’t mind being out in the sun.
“I’m not going to encourage a water fight, but if one breaks out I’m not complaining,” said Claire Matt, a junior and member of the Concerto Choir. Volunteers from the Chamber Choir also participated in the cleaning frenzy. Senior Jeremy Borgia is working to raise money for a Chamber Choir trip to Southern California where they will attend a number of singing festivals. He even got his mom, Ariane Borgia, to donate a few hours. Neither of them were too worried about the heat or the smell of the seafood.
“We’ve changed diapers, right?” Borgia’s mother said laughing to another mother in the group.
Megan Stevens can be reached at 408-842-6400.
