One Tasty Weekend in Downtown MH

A crisp fall day Saturday and a bright blue sky on a warm Sunday
may have helped lure visitors to the 18th Taste of Morgan Hill this
weekend, and organizers say the event may have brought in more
money than last year.
Morgan Hill – A crisp fall day Saturday and a bright blue sky on a warm Sunday may have helped lure visitors to the 18th Taste of Morgan Hill this weekend, and organizers say the event may have brought in more money than last year.

“This was my third (Taste of Morgan Hill), and I was very pleased, I thought it was a great event,” said Dan Ehrler, executive director of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce, which hosts the event.

Final numbers won’t be available until next week, Ehrler said, but he is estimating the attendance to be nearly 50,000 for both days, with Sunday a bit more crowded than Saturday.

“I know there were many other events going on in the region, and I think people went to some of those on Saturday, and then, when Sunday was so bright and beautiful, they decided to come here,” he said. 

Michelle Booth, from San Jose, said she stumbled on the festival last year when she was on her way to the Gilroy Premium Outlets, and she made a point of finding out when the festival would be held again so she could return.

“When we got up this morning and looked at the weather, the kids were so excited, what a perfect day for the Taste,” she said Saturday.

Ehrler said the annual food, drink and fun festival has grown a bit, with a few more commercial vendors and the largest number of food vendors yet – 19.

Jan Garrett of Gilroy said she was impressed with the additions to the festival.

“I’ve always liked it because it’s a more intimate event than the Garlic Festival, but it’s good to see some choices,” she said.

The Custom and Classic Car Show had more cars this year, Ehrler said. 

“There were more than 160 on Saturday and over 100 on Sunday, the largest number of cars that exhibited in its 18-year history,” he said. 

The quilt show was also a success, he added. 

“They had 3,500 or 3,600 visitors, and all their vendors signed up for next year before they left,” he said. 

The vendors who participated in this year’s quilt show all signed up to return again next year.

The two-day festival closes the downtown corridor between Dunne and Main avenues and some side streets, and police say there are often parking issues, but Ehrler said this year’s event went relatively smoothly because of the hard work of all the volunteers.

“They were extraordinary,” he said. “Collectively, the sponsors and volunteers really made it happen.”

Not all was rosy though, as police arrested five during the festival, but most of the problems and calls for service during the annual celebration were routine.

Wesley King, 31, of Watsonville, was arrested on suspicion of violating probation and possession of stolen property after he stole a $250 flute from a festival vendor, according to Sgt. Jerry Neumayer said. The flute was recovered and returned to the vendor, he said. King was on probation for theft.

Three teenage girls were also arrested for theft. Two 14-year-olds and one 16-year-old were cited for stealing jewelry and released to their parents, Neumayer said. 

A man was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public after a woman claimed he was urinating in front of a downtown business near the M&H Tavern. The man was later released without a citation.

“We had some parking problems, people parking in front of residential driveways, we had some gang activity that we confronted them on, sent them on their way somewhere else, and we had some people walking around with open containers, drinking alcohol that was not purchased at the festival,” Neumayer said. “We did cite one person for having an open container, but the majority of the others poured it out right there.” 

The two-day Taste of Morgan Hill was, from a police standpoint, typical, Neumayer said. Though officers responded to a lot of calls for service, there were no major incidents.