Running the beer concession is not as simple as trotting a few
kegs out to the park. It’s complicated and so is the answer for
Coast Range
Should the Garlic Festival pull open the tap on its lucrative concession gates to allow a local brewery, Coast Range, makers of the Farmhouse Ale brands, to sell its product at Gilroy’s signature event?

A simple answer: you bet. But the reality of the festival and the logistics associated with selling suds to the masses who show up for our community’s annual garlic party turn the simple answer into something more complicated.

The Gilroy Chamber of Commerce has the main beer concession in an arrangement cast long ago.

With it comes, of course, generous profits as well as the complicated responsibility of making beer sales work smoothly, which includes finding enough volunteers to man the taps in all the beer tents so thirsty crowds don’t have to wait in long lines.

There’s a bid process, and requirements that truthfully only a large distributor can fulfill because of the needs for so many taps, refrigerated trucks and the manpower associated with rolling out kegs, fixing lines, carrying the proper insurance, setting up complicated beer tents and all the details that fall under what is the second most complicated vending operation in the festival behind Gourmet Alley.

Coast Range is asking the festival and Chamber to force this year’s bid winner, the local Budweiser distributor, to sell their beer, too.

That’s not a reasonable request given the circumstances, though it makes sense to use the Garlic Festival as a venue to promote local products. We do it, after all, with our regional wines.

So, what’s the solution? Perhaps the reintroduction of a gourmet microbrew area is the ticket.

After this year’s festival, the directors always meet to assess and re-direct efforts. This is an agenda item that could enhance the customer’s experience at the festival, provide for local participation (Coast Range and El Toro) and make money for a local organization.

The Gilroy Rotary Club runs the wine tent, surely there is another civic group that would consider manning a microbrew area and turning a profit.

It’s no easy task walking the line between local promotion and efficient operations. But there must be a reasonable way to get Coast Range into the taps at the Garlic Festival.

Hopefully, that can get done next year. Meanwhile, mark your calendar. The 29th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival is fast approaching. This year’s dates: July 27, 28 and 29.

Let’s remember, too, that while healthy debate over Garlic Festival issues ultimately improves what happens each year, we’re a fortunate community to have such an amazing festival. And it works because we all work together.

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