Golf carts buzzed around Christmas Hill Park like honeybees
Wednesday afternoon as a bevy of volunteers scurried to erect the
cook-off stage, stock the mercantile tents and set up Gourmet Alley
for this weekend’s Garlic Festival.
Golf carts buzzed around Christmas Hill Park like honeybees Wednesday afternoon as a bevy of volunteers scurried to erect the cook-off stage, stock the mercantile tents and set up Gourmet Alley for this weekend’s Garlic Festival.
With his two daughters – Olivia, 8, and Gianna, 6 – in tow, Garlic Festival President Greg Bozzo surveyed the construction of this year’s cook-off stage. With almost twice as many seats as last year, about 1,700, the stage will host some of the festival’s hottest culinary competitions. In past years, the bleachers filled quickly and the crowd packed in so tightly that volunteers had to turn some of them away at the entrance.
“There’s more room this year, but we hope to pack it again,” Bozzo said.
Sunny skies and a cool breeze kept volunteers comfortable as they worked. The unseasonably cool weather should extend into the weekend with highs in the mid-80s.
That’s great news for Brian Bowe, Garlic Festival Association executive director.
“I’m loving it,” he said. “It’s overcast in the morning but it burns off in the afternoon. It’s just perfect. The weather is definitely cooperating.”
Thanks to the cooler weather and late rains this year, what is usually dusty turf is still soft green grass. A group of teenage volunteers kicked a soccer ball around in the shade while they waited for their next assignment.
Leif Dominguez, 15, has been volunteering on behalf of the Gilroy High School and Gilroy Hawks wrestling teams for a few years now and joined his fellow teammates in setting out garbage barrels. Even though the boys spend long hours doing some of the dirtiest work at the festival, swapping out full barrels with fresher ones, they still have a good time.
“We do it because we like to,” Dominguez said. “Riding in the tractor is fun. And we get to enjoy the festival too. I look forward to it.”
This year, festival attendees may notice more blue recycling bins than usual and six volunteer-run booths where waste products can be separated into compost, recycling and garbage. The additions are just one of many “green” initiatives Bozzo said he’s pushing this year.
Volunteers in Gourmet Alley and the mercantile tents busied themselves with preparing food and merchandise but said they were ahead of schedule. Karen Riso and Sue Keehn, who operate the festival’s popular chicken stir-fry booth, started cooking at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and had a whole day of chopping before them, but were in good spirits.
“I can’t get the smell of chicken off my hands,” Riso joked. “And then it’s just going to turn into the smell of garlic.”
Boxes of merchandise lined the mercantile tent as retail chair Debbie Geiger decorated one of the walls with past poster winners. Geiger was always involved in the festival in some capacity when her children were younger. The registered nurse took on a bigger role once her children got older and is used to taking time off work to help set up, she said. Her daughter Jennifer marked festival T-shirts with price tags while her son Kent hung posters as Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” played on a boombox in the background. The mercantile tent opens Thursday night for volunteers to peruse the displays and Geiger said she thinks the carved cheese trays will be particularly popular this year.
Though it’s hard to predict hot items or foods, one thing’s for sure – judging by online ticket sales, this year should be a busy one, Bowe said.
“We’re selling so many online tickets, it keeps crashing our website,” he said.
When: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday. Gates close at 6 p.m.
Where: Christmas Hill Park
Details: www.gilroygarlicfestival.com
