After more than four decades, one of the country’s most famous food festivals is closing for a “foreseeable future”, organizers said.
The Garroy Garlic Festival is a large-scale three-day event in the northern California town of Gilroy that celebrates the “stinking rose” and raises money for local charities. Organizers said the event was no longer feasible due to increased insurance costs and “continuing uncertainty” from COVID-19.
Gilroy officials are also setting “excessive insurance requirements” for the festival, former Tom Garlic Association president Tom Klein and vice president-elect Cindy Fellows said in a statement first released by Gilroy Dispatch.
“Obviously we are disappointed and disappointed,” the statement said. “Our world-renowned festival has helped represent Gilroy and South County for 42 years, while raising millions of dollars for local charities.”
“The festival is part of our heritage,” the Cline and Fellows said in a statement. “We must now ensure that this is part of our future. Although it will never be the mass event of the past, a more intimate, local festival can still allow us to celebrate the community, the garlic and everything that inspires. “
The event, which began in 1979 and holds the Guinness World Record for the highest attendance at the Garlic Festival, was hit by a mass shooting in 2019, which killed three people and injured 17. It was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2021, according to SF Gate, the organizers tried to recreate the festival as a drive-thru event.
Add Comment