The Gilroy Garlic Festival may be saved after all — or might not.
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Less than two weeks after organizers announced that the annual celebration was canceled this year and possibly for the "foreseeable future," officials from a different vegetable-themed event said they would host this year’s festival.
The Noceti Group, the business which organizes the San Joaquin Asparagus Festival in Stockton, said in a Facebook post on Sunday that they planned on bringing back this year's Garlic Festival.
No other information about their revived event was released, but officials said more details are coming "soon."
The Gilroy Garlic Festival, a staple of Northern California since 1979, announced on April 22 that this year's and possibly future celebrations have been canceled due to “lingering uncertainties from the pandemic, along with the prohibitive insurance requirements by the City of Gilroy.”
Instead of the festival, the city plans to host several smaller events to raise money for the local charities that normally were involved.
Gilroy's mayor, Marie Blankley, previously told KCBS Radio she was hopeful the festival would reemerge in a new form.
The Noceti Group, which organizes a variety of local events, also helped restore the asparagus festival, formerly called the Stockton Asparagus Festival, which was in danger of being canceled.
"We are exploring all options and opportunities to keep these types of community events alive whenever possible … Stay tuned for future announcements regarding the garlic festival." the group wrote in a statement.
Noceti Group officials didn't respond to KCBS Radio's request for comment prior to publication on Monday.
However, in response Gilroy Garlic Festival officials said in a post on Monday that they have not yet been contacted by Noceti Group about a potential revival and the group's version of the event would not be "a sanctioned Gilroy Garlic Festival Association event."
"Stockton is not the successor of our community's homecoming event to support our essential non-profits here in Gilroy, the Garlic Capital of the World," organizers wrote. "The board is happy to see the enthusiasm the Noceti Group has for garlic, but asks that they communicate directly with the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association with those ideas."
Ken Christopher, Executive Vice President of Christopher Ranch and Gilroy Garlic Festival organizer, speaking to KTVU, slammed the Noceti Group's efforts.
"It looks like the Noceti Group, at best, is ignorantly trying to use a news cycle to promote a future Stockton-based garlic event, and at worst, is using the national press surrounding my grandfather's and my hometown's legacy to self-promote," Christopher told the station.
"If the Noceti group is earnestly trying to have a garlic promotion in their hometown, God bless them," he continued. "But claiming to bring back the Gilroy Garlic Festival, without comment or cooperation from our Association, Board, President, or Christopher Ranch is malicious."
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