Posted on 04/22/2022 9:40:56 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The popular Gilroy Garlic Festival and gourmet alley which attracted tens of thousands of garlic lovers and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities is being canceled indefinitely.
“Due to lingering uncertainties from the pandemic, along with prohibitive insurance requirements by the City of Gilroy, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Board has decided not to move ahead with a festival for 2022 and the foreseeable future,” the festival board of directors said in a letter to local media.
According to past president and current board member, Tom Cline the festival was losing money.
“Clearly it was over the 10 years of just losing money was the main culprit and the main cause of what was going on with the festival and being able to be sustainable and that was the real cause that was the root cause of it,” Cline said.
Festival organizers said rising costs and insurance premiums contributed to the problem. The festival was having to bus-in people as development encroached around Christmas Hill Park where the annual was held.
“The truth of the matter is the development around Christmas Hill Park is what was eating at the Garlic Festival Association's reserves and they were barely able to keep that going,” said Gilroy Mayor Marie Blankley.
Organizers said a deadly shooting at the festival in 2019 that left three dead and injured 17, played little in their decision to cancel the festival. The event never really recovered from it. The festival was canceled the following year because of COVID-19 and a drive-thru version was held in 2021.
“The nonprofits, schools, sports teams, I mean so many things yes that depended on it for fundraising absolutely that's probably the biggest loss I would say,” Blankley said.
Organizers say they are re-imagining the annual festival and will look to bring back a much smaller version, possibly a 2,500 to 5,000 person a day event; if they can only find a venue.
“We're not going away," Cline said. "We're trying to work through it and figure it out and it is a process and it's hard to put a timetable on it and I know people want that and understand that we just got to find it."
Festival organizers said they plan to hold several smaller events this summer to keep the brand alive and raise money for local nonprofits. Those events include a golf tournament in June, a concert in July and a dinner in September.
“The glories of diversity writ large.”
Those “glories” are becoming more apparent as time goes on.
“I can see WHY he was the PAST president...”
It sounds like he’s a graduate of the Kamaltoe Harris School of Public Babbling.
Well, that ought to solve everything. Success is, after all, nothing more than failure re-imagined.
No, the shooting had nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing.
It was a fun event back in the day. Last time I went was back in the aughts. Still had vestiges of being a farmers event.
Never seemed that bad when I was there.
Ping
Remember, we went with the church group.
Saw that last night on KNTV
Too bad...
I had volunteered there several times over the years for charity and lived right across the street
Go to the outlets.
They have Garlic Ice Cream at two places...
She was the Artichoke Queen in Castroville...
Large scale ‘festivals’ open to the public is pretty much dying off in the US these days, thanks to courts which don’t let the organizers exclude gang members and our repopulation program, which makes every public event look like a UN gathering.
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It seems as though even Americans with English as their first language are rapidly losing the skill to communicate their thoughts succinctly and smoothly in English.
Attended the 1981 Garlic festival.
My first and last. Dusty, hot, crowded.
A pity. We used to go every year.
It had become over large and unpleasant. I don’t blame them.
An excuse not to relate to others as human beings. Covid is to blame for all of our shortcomings.
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