‘Garlic Idol’ a hit at fest as 200 pack tent to watch as 24 sing
and final five are chosen
Gilroy – It’s down to the Top 10. The Garlic Idol finalists are now set as the first day of competition has passed.
Twenty-four contestants signed up Friday morning in hopes of being one of the five finalists picked to move on to today’s finals. Five contestants are already guaranteed spots after they had auditioned last week on Mix 106.5.
The five finalists chosen Friday at the Garlic Festival are Olivia Echeverria, Hector Vargas-Perez, Kaila Sergent, Chantal Mortensen and Jaime Lindow. Those five will face off with the others at 1pm underneath the Garlic Idol tent where only three will move on to the last day of the competition Sunday.
There were three judges, but none were a Simon Cowell. Donald Prieto, Gilroy’s own “Elvis” impersonator was there to check out the talent, along with the 2003 Garlic Queen Melissa Noto and Tim “Slappy” Babb, a singer/comedian who has opened for comedians Carlos Mencia and Sinbad.
Not one made a rude comment or told anyone to get off stage. In truth, none of them said a word throughout the entire competition.
Sergent, who sang “And I Am Telling You” from the ’80s musical “Dreamgirls,” said she hadn’t made the decision to even show up for the event until that morning.
“My grandma called me and told me to do this,” she said. “She said, ‘Kaila, you have to do this!'”
Sergent made the decision in the morning and called in sick to work. She couldn’t miss this, she said.
Mortensen, a San Jose native, said she had just found out about the event a few days prior. She said she had been singing since she was 7 years old and had been in competitions before – in the third grade.
“I’m excited,” she said before she had taken the stage to sing “Respect” by Aretha Franklin. “I picked it because I have a lot of fun singing that song.”
The event, the first of its kind at the festival, seemed to be a hit with festival attendees as about 200 people packed the tent.
“I think this is one of the best booths I’ve ever been to,” said Christina Herrada who glanced over to her husband and daughter and asked why some of these people hadn’t tried out for “American Idol.”
“They’re very surprising,” she said. “They’re all very good.”
Kenny Dominguez, a Gilroy resident, said the competition was keeping him entertained.
“Out of all the (booths) this is the one I’ve been at the longest,” he said. Dominguez added that the event was keeping everyone in their seats – whether it was for good or bad.
The competition was open for all those 15 and older, so that shut out 11-year-old Megan Reynolds.
“I’m OK,” she said about not being able to sing. But then her face crinkled up and she crossed her arms and said, “I’m kind of mad because me and my mom rushed all the way over here.”
Since Megan couldn’t perform her mother Lynn signed up instead.
“Since she can’t, I will,” Lynn said standing in line to sign up. “I figured if she chickened out, I would do it.”
