Gilroy is fondly known, according to Gilroy tutors, as the “Garlic Capital of the World”. Every year the highly anticipated “Gilroy Garlic Festival” takes place. It is the highlight of the Gilroy social calendar and much of the communities’ attention is focused on this in the months that approach the event, with regular planning meetings held to discuss how to maintain its success and how to best continue to encourage involvement from Gilroy community members of all ages.
Now in it’s 39th year, The “Gilroy Garlic Festival” has an international draw and is not just limited to locals in attendance. According to Gilroy tutors, its scale and large attendance (in the hundreds of thousands) make it one of the biggest food festivals in the country. Since it began it is reported that over three million guests have attended the “Gilroy Garlic Festival”.
As you can imagine the creativity of locals and years of development has led to some very unusual uses for the garlic, all of which are on show at the festival for the attendees to sample. One of the most curious is the garlic-flavored ice cream, which Gilroy tutors report to be delicious. There are many things offered to take part in when attending the festival; on stage performances, cooking demonstrations, live music, and a live cook-off, are some of the activities that are available. Very popular among the young ladies of Gilroy, especially due to the extraordinarily large amount of spectators from across the world, is the “Miss Gilroy Garlic Festival Queen” honor. In a small-scale version of Miss America, a panel of judges chooses the queen after the young lady takes part in a series of tests. Unlike Miss America, there is no swimsuit competition, the components of the competition are based on the girls’ talent in delivering a speech, her responses in an interview and of course an obligatory evening wear parade.
The idea behind the festival was to create an event that could generate lots of money for local charities. “The Gilroy Garlic Festival Association” was created as a registered non-profit and their sole purpose is to focus on this event year round. They also encourage local charities to man a stall at the event to educate the visitors on the specifics of their particular cause and encourage direct donations. Since its inception they have successfully raised millions of dollars which they have been able to inject back into their community and support the charities that work tirelessly in the Gilroy community.