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Gilroy Garlic Festival

Food festival in Gilroy, California

Field	Value
name
logo	Gilroy Garlic Festival logo.png
logo_alt	Gilroy Garlic Festival Logo
logo_size	200
status	Active
genre	Fairs
date
begins	The Friday preceding the last Sunday of July
ends	Last Sunday of July
frequency	Annually
venue	Christmas Hill Park, Gilroy Gardens
location	Gilroy, California
coordinates
country	United States
years_active	1979–2019, 2021, 2025–present
first
founder_name
last
organised
sponsor
homepage

The Gilroy Garlic Festival is a food festival in the United States, initially held annually from 1979 to 2019 at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy, California, on the last full weekend in July. After its cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a drive-through festival was held on July 23–25, July 30–31, and August 1, 2021. In April 2022, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association announced the indefinite suspension of the traditional large-format festival, stating that it would instead host smaller individual events. In May 2022, the festival was canceled indefinitely. On March 28, 2025, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association announced that that the festival would return in 2025, from July 25-27, 2025.

An annual three-day event, the Gilroy Garlic Festival was one of the country's best-known food festivals, drawing visitors from across the nation. Located about 30 mi southeast of San Jose, Gilroy is home to about 60,000 people, and the city is a major producer of garlic. The festival was Gilroy's top fundraiser, staffed with volunteers to raise money for nonprofit groups including clubs and schools.

History

The inaugural Garlic Festival was held in 1979. Rudolph J. Malone, then President of Gavilan College in Gilroy, was inspired by a small town in France which hosted an annual garlic festival and claimed to be the "Garlic Capital of the World." Malone started the festival, which attracted hundreds of thousands of paying visitors a year.

2019 shooting

Main article: Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting

On July 28, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at the 41st edition of the festival. Three people were killed, in addition to the gunman, and 17 others were injured.

COVID-19 pandemic and cancellation

The festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while 2021 saw a drive-thru festival.

California Garlic Festival

The California Garlic Festival was held annually from 2022 to 2024 in response to the cancellation of the Gilroy Garlic Festival. The California Garlic Festival is sometimes considered a successor of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, although they are held by two unrelated organizers.

2025 revival

On March 28, 2025, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association announced the Garlic Festival would return July 25-27, 2025. The 2025 festival was held at Gilroy Gardens. Attendance was limited to 3,000 per day, compared to past festivals that had 100,000 attendees.

In popular culture

The Garlic Festival was featured by Huell Howser in Road Trip Episode 124.

Gallery

References

Sources

References

(May 2, 2022). "Gilroy Garlic Festival is not returning, despite reports".
Dorsey, Dustin. (July 20, 2021). "Here's how the reimagined 2021 Gilroy Garlic Festival will work at Gilroy Presbyterian Church".
(April 21, 2022). "Gilroy Garlic Festival Cancels Annual Event Indefinitely".
Echeverria, Danielle. (April 22, 2022). "Gilroy Garlic Festival canceled for foreseeable future". San Francisco Chronicle.
(2025-07-24). "Six years later, smaller Garlic Festival comes blazing back to Gilroy".
(2025-06-01). "How the world-famous Gilroy Garlic Festival came back from tragedy with a new vision".
(July 28, 2019). "Gilroy Festival Shooting in California Kills at Least 3". The New York Times.
(July 28, 2019). "Four dead, including suspect, and at least 15 hurt after shooting at Gilroy Garlic Festival". The Mercury News.
Thomas, Robert McG. Jr.. (November 3, 1998). "Rudolph Melone, 73, Founder of California's Gilroy Garlic Festival". The New York Times.
(August 29, 2019). "Police say a 17th person was wounded in Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting". Los Angeles Times.
(July 29, 2019). "Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting: Suspect Santino William Legan, 19, identified as gunman who allegedly killed 3 people". ABC News.
(July 29, 2019). "Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting: 3 killed, 12 wounded, gunman dead". San Francisco Chronicle.
Rivera, Kurt. (12 August 2022). "Inaugural California Garlic Festival kicks off this weekend in Stockton".
(2024-04-24). "The California Garlic Festival Is Moving Again, This Time to Los Banos".
Gary, Jesse. (2022-05-02). "Gilroy Garlic Festival in Stockton? Promoter says no".
Irshad, Zara. (March 28, 2025). "Gilroy Garlic Festival plots first full-scale event since 2019 mass shooting. But there's a catch".
(25 September 2003). "Gilroy – Road Trip (124) – Huell Howser Archives at Chapman University".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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