The weather smiled on nearly 60,000 happy people at this
weekend
’s 14th annual Chamber of Commerce Taste of Morgan Hill, leaving
smiles on the faces of vendors, volunteers and organizers alike.
Over at the Chamber offices, smiles huge.
The weather smiled on nearly 60,000 happy people at this weekend’s 14th annual Chamber of Commerce Taste of Morgan Hill, leaving smiles on the faces of vendors, volunteers and organizers alike. Over at the Chamber offices, smiles huge.
“It was wonderful,” said Sunday Minnich, the chamber’s executive director. “It was the largest crowd we ever had. On Saturday you could hardly walk through the streets.”
Minnich said the Taste hosted 30 more arts and craft and food vendors than ever before. She also thanked the mild weather for being a major factor in bringing out 10,000 more people to the downtown than last year.
“If it had been as hot as it was the weekend before we wouldn’t have done as well,” Minnich said.
The Taste also introduced two potential festivals that residents may see in the future.
Film fans checked out the Poppy Jasper Film Festival posters and filled out response cards at the Community Playhouse.
More visibly, a mini-festival of Italian street painting on the wide sidewalk at the community center attracted lots of attention. The highly detailed chalk paintings of familiar Renaissance paintings will remain on the sidewalk near the center’s flagpoles until foot traffic, dew or rain wash them away.
According to Jay Jaso, an analyst in the city public works department who was keeping an eye on the mini-festivals, the public response was totally positive.
A more complete story with full-color pictures will appear in Friday’s Morgan Hill Life section of The Times. In the meantime, residents are encouraged to stop by and take a look. The community center is located on Monterey Road at East Dunne Avenue.
Visitors and volunteers were pleased with what they saw along the Taste’s six blocks, from Main to Dunne.
Madison Covas, a third-grader at El Toro Elementary, said she had been coming to the festival for five years, and she always looked forward to the cotton candy.
“You should come because it is really a lot of fun,” she said would be her comment to those who had never attended the festival.
A first-time Taste volunteer, Susie Shapiro was working the wine and beer ticket booth Saturday, and “having a great time.” She said she would be back the next day, pouring beer, and was glad she had signed up to help.
Minnich said many volunteers this year were new as people move to town and discover that helping out at these events is a fine way to meet people and discover what Morgan Hill is all about.
“We couldn’t do this without them,” Minnich said, praising her team of volunteers, about 50 each day, people pouring wine and beer, staffing the Classic Car Show and keeping trash under control. Trash detail was handled by Boy Scout Troop 730.
Even the bands, lined up for two full days of entertainment, had a great time.
Canyon Crew performed a set of country music on the Second Street Stage Sunday afternoon.
“Our performance went as smooth as silk, with everything just right,” said singer Gail Canton. She said the crowd “appreciative” and Canyon Crew received “many compliments.”
Some vendors lucked out with their booth location.
Nicole Quintana, a Southern Living Home consultant, was a first-time vendor this year. Her booth was next to the San Francisco 49ers cheerleaders, who were signing everything signable and chatting with fans.
“More than half of my sales so far have been to men,” she said on Saturday. “I’m pleased with the amount of exposure we’re getting, people stopping to look.”
Some vendors lucked out in other ways, through careful planning.
Maureen Lindsey and her sister, Colleen Garbin, were set up in front of Lindsey’s new business, Vintage Pear, which occupies the former Thomas Kinkade Hometown Gallery on the corner of Monterey Road and West Third Street – right smack in the the middle of the Taste.
“She intentionally scheduled her opening day for the Taste of Morgan Hill,” Garbin said Saturday.
It could have been they came up to sample the soup, too; Garbin was dishing out white cheddar and asparagus soup and cheese enchilada soup, popular during the chilly morning hours. Garbin said the soup mixes are sold in the new store, as well as other specialty-food items, tea accessories and lace products.
Besides vendors, there was plenty to do for the small set. The Kid Zone, holding forth near Main Avenue, was bigger, Minnich said. The Kid Zone gives 20 percent of its proceeds back to the Chamber.
The Taste is the Chamber’s largest fund raiser.
The weekend was almost, but not entirely, troublefree.
Police Lt. Joe Sampson said he was walking around on Saturday observing the crowd.
“We didn’t have any significant problems to speak of,” he said. “It was a really well done event, good teamwork up front between the Chamber, event organizers and the police department.”
One incident, Sampson said, was the arrest of someone who “appeared to be intoxicated.” Officers were called to First Street at 4 p.m. Sunday because an adult male was staggering around, bumping into people and was unable, when questioned, to give his location or the date or time. He was taken into custody and later released with a citation.
Besides finding goodies to buy, quilt raffle tickets, authors to chat with and music and food to enjoy, visitors could also pick up information on dozens of nonprofit organizations, churches and businesses.
The Taste’s Classic Car Show always draws the nostalgic and the admiring to its hundreds of shiny hot rods, antique and classic cars, this year including quite a few Ferraris.
Myles Taketa headed the car show committee this year for the first time.
He said far more cars than the 225 the streets could handle showed up early Saturday morning.
“Far more than we could accommodate safely,” Taketa said. Besides lining the streets, the committee stashed cars in parking lots, on side streets, every nook and cranny. “It was much calmer on Sunday.”
The Morgan Hill Rotary Club barbecued lunch for car owners and Taste volunteers, as it does every year. Because of the unexpected horde of car owners, the club used up two days of food by Saturday night and had to resupply for Sunday.
“The car show committee greatly appreciates what Rotary does for us,” Taketa said. He also wanted to thank his hard working committee, the Chamber and sponsors.
