Today, The Dispatch begins a 25-edition series
– a nostalgic celebration and a year-by-year history – of the
Gilroy Garlic Festival.
Today, The Dispatch begins a 25-edition series – a nostalgic celebration and a year-by-year history – of the Gilroy Garlic Festival. We’ve talked with the 22 living past presidents and asked Gilroyans to help tell the story of the beloved Rudy Melone, the festival’s president in 1979 and 1980, who is now departed.
We start our Silver Anniversay Garlic Festival tribute series with a look at this year. We’ll work our way back so that the day before the 25th Anniversary Garlic Festival opens, we’ll chronicle the first year – 1979 – in pictures and words.
Each day leading up to this year’s festival, we will publish a front-page story visiting with each of the presidents. Plus, on the back of the sports section daily, we’ll publish the poster from that year along with a snapshot 1,000-word Garlic Festival history story.
The Garlic Festival put Gilroy on the map. It has plowed more than $6 million back into the community. We’re proud to pay tribute to the event, the community and the people who turned this wistful dream into a joyous reality.
~ Mark Derry, editor
Bill Barry, publisher
