‘The Puff of Dust’ tames festival
By Tony Burchyns Staff Writer
Gilroy – Garlic Festival President Micki Pirozzoli broke the laws of physics last the weekend. Or so it seemed to the naked eye. She was everywhere at once, checking gates, scanning the festival grounds and making sure the massive operation ran smooth as garlic butter.
No sweat, said Pirozzoli, a 46-year-old teacher at Gilroy High School – and this year’s volunteer general at the 28th Gilroy Garlic Festival.
Multi-tasking comes natural to her. So does speed. You don’t get a nickname like “The Puff of Dust” for nothing.
One thing’s for sure. Her peers love having her around. The proof was in the pudding Sunday morning. Staff workers beamed as she approached on her morning rounds, radio squawking at her hip and cell phone vibrating in her pocket every three minutes.
Luckily, everything appeared to be running like clockwork. It usually does, she said. In fact, it was hard to name a single major problem.
“To tell you the truth, nothing stands out,” she said.
Pirozzoli’s day started at 6am. She was at Christmas Hill Park an hour later for a meeting and a few laps around the festival grounds.
As the countdown to the festival’s final day grew nearer, she hustled over to the pyro chefs to see they had everything they needed.
A question loomed: Did the cooks have enough propane to last the day? Pirozzoli wanted to know. She greeted the crew while dancing to the beat of an up-tempo song blasting over the stereo. The matter was soon resolved, and she disappeared to her next obligation like, well, a puff of dust.
Pirozzoli’s effervescence and warm personality – and spark-plug energy – made her a well-liked general.
“She’s a good leader,” said Lisa Sheedy, a member of the festival’s advisory committee.
It seems to be the common response. But Pirozzoli knows the festival. She’s been volunteering since 1983. She proved herself to be a team leader when she stepped in to chair the Transportation Committee four years ago. From there it was onto the Advisory Committee and then the board of directors. She was tapped for the job of vice president more than a year ago, springing her into the top job this year.
As Garlic Festival President, Pirozzoli spent hundreds of hours chairing the festival’s board of directors. The board oversees more than 30 committees that coordinate the efforts of 4,000 volunteers who make the festival come alive.
On Sunday, she had little time to relax. After greeting the pyro chefs, Pirozzoli strolled across the festival grounds to check the gates. She wanted to make sure the right staff was in place to handle the roughly 2,000 patrons who had purchased tickets online. The e-tickets were a new feature this year, attracting a small flurry of attention.
Standing by Gate Two, Pirozzoli surveyed the crowd. There were fewer early birds than Saturday, she noted, which is typically the busiest day of the three-day festival. She said the numbers seemed down this year from last year’s estimate of 130,000. But she was not so concerned about that.
“Yeah, numbers are nice,” she said. “But for me, it’s more important that people are saying ‘Wow, this is so great, we’ve had a wonderful time.'”
That seemed to be the case throughout the weekend. The event remains the community’s pride and joy, a chance to welcome the world into Gilroy’s living room and celebrate its close-knit spirit. Not to mention, eat a ton of garlic.
