A recent Dispatch Web poll asked voters if the Garlic Festival
should book big-name acts for the annual stinking rose
celebration.
A recent Dispatch Web poll asked voters if the Garlic Festival should book big-name acts for the annual stinking rose celebration.
We confess to being surprised by the results: 195 people voted, with 72 percent supporting the notion of big-name bands instead of smaller, local bands.
We also confess that we disagree with the poll results.
The Gilroy Garlic Festival is a well-oiled machine, firing on all cylinders. It’s working well. It attracts as many people as it can comfortably hold, and it generates plenty of revenue for the community, for vendors and for festival organizers.
In other words, to be brief and colloquial, it ain’t broke, so don’t fix it.
If the Garlic Festival were struggling for funds, if attendance figures were on a steady decline, our advice might be different.
But happily, for the last quarter-century, all has been and continues to be well with Gilroy’s main claim to fame.
In fact, last year, despite competition from the inaugural San Jose Grand Prix and a $2 ticket price boost, the Garlic Festival drew more than 129,000 people, nearly setting a record.
After all the money was counted and all the bills were paid, last year’s festival doled out a record-setting $300,000 to 170 local organizations. The festival raised $75,000 more than the previous year and broke the revenue record held by 25th anniversary festival of 2003 by $30,000. All told, the Garlic Festival has given more than $7 million to local groups over the last 27 years.
Clearly, nothing’s wrong with the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Certainly tweaks and improvements can and should be made to fine-tune the festival.
But changing the character of the festival by booking big-name musical acts is not necessary and potentially damaging.
Let’s preserve the spirit of the Garlic Festival by booking the same kinds of musical acts we’ve been booking for the last wildly successful quarter-century.
