Once the Gilroy Garlic Festival closed its gate Sunday evening
the work of organizers and volunteers ended
– for about 24 hours. This week, the key players are gathering
for
”
de-cloving
”
meetings to talk about what could be improved, according to Ken
Fry, co-chairperson of Gourmet Alley.
By Perry Shirley
Staff Writer
Gilroy – Once the Gilroy Garlic Festival closed its gate Sunday evening the work of organizers and volunteers ended – for about 24 hours. This week, the key players are gathering for “de-cloving” meetings to talk about what could be improved, according to Ken Fry, co-chairperson of Gourmet Alley.
While they may not be experts at putting festivals together, this year’s attendees also had some suggestions for changes. Some had trouble finding bathrooms or ATMs, some found Christmas Hill Park dirty, others were frustrated by the traffic.
But one common remark from many of who have attended several times over the years, was that it wasn’t change they wanted but consistency and maybe even a step back towards the way things were in festivals past.
“Once upon a time,” said Paul Kolak who has traveled to the festival from Carmichael every year since 1983, “they would never let the garbage cans overflow like they do now.”
T.J. Jackson of Milpitas was looking forward to bringing his infant daughter to the festival he had enjoyed several times before. Unfortunately, he said, he was mystified by the state of the children’s area, calling it “the dirtiest and dustiest thing around.” Part of the problem comes from having the face-painting and kid’s craft booths squeezed in too small an area, he said, adding that the grassy area north of the garlic torch would be ideal.
“It’s a yearly thing and they need to adapt,” Jackson said. “When it’s all over you figure out what had the biggest impact and you work on that.”
Struggles with heavy traffic getting to the festival dismayed Keith Hirota who said that he spent only a half hour getting from his South San Jose home to the Masten Avenue exit on Highway 101 but that it took an hour and a half to make the remaining seven miles.
He blamed the new housing developments along Santa Teresa Boulevard and the addition of stop lights. In the end, he suggested maybe making a drastic move such as creating one-way streets for the three-day weekend to allow a larger volume of vehicles to pass.
Restrooms also drew criticism. Ellita Potthast of Fresno said she “could have used a little more advertisement about where one could find sanitary relief.” Kolak said that he has noticed that many of the portable toilets were missing the little levers that tell people if a stall is occupied or not, leading to confusion and uncomfortable barges into those using the restrooms.
After 24 festivals, Kolak said he has seen a tendency to commercialize the event, bringing what he acknowledges are “inevitable” and “necessary” sponsors. He has long appreciated the small town charm of the affair and said he “would have a different opinion” of it if it got too commercialized.
Steve Welsh, now working on quality control in Gourmet Alley, said the difficult part has been to balance changes that make the festival better while keeping successful aspects the same.
“It becomes a lot more work to keep the consistency,” he said. “There’s always way in which you can improve but more importantly you want to give a consistent experience, that’s the real challenge.”
