It started to smell a lot like garlic in Gilroy on Friday, as the Gilroy Garlic Festival kicked off the first day of its two-weekend event.
The festival is back after the tragic shooting in 2019 and the difficult decision to skip last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Everyone's excited," festival president Tom Cline told KCBS Radio. "Everyone is just ready."
With the risks of the pandemic still here, the festival started serving its famously garlicky eats at 4 p.m. on Friday in a drive-through format. All orders will need to be made online, and those are already pouring in.
"We had one group, they bought over 40 orders of scampi and 9.5 loaves of garlic bread," Cline said. "So they are having a party somewhere."
Gilroy will commemorate the 2019 shooting victims next Wednesday. In the meantime, Cline said the festival is also a time to celebrate the city’s resilience.
"Get back to our roots, get back to who we are as a community and really emphasize that," he said. "And that is what we plan on doing for these next two weeks."
Related
