It was 5:30pm Sunday and things were hot and heavy at the Garlic
Festival.
Gilroy – It was 5:30pm Sunday and things were hot and heavy at the Garlic Festival.
Maybe the heat was from the sun that burnt through the cloudless sky, and maybe the heaviness was from all the food they had wolfed down, but couples braved sweat and garlic-breath to get close, shimmying to “Pretty Woman,” strolling under trees with arms clutched around waists or snuggling on a hay bale next to the children’s area.
“It’s very romantic,” Monique Williams said.
“Especially if it’s your first time,” piped in boyfriend Wayne Williams, whose arm Monique was leaning against and pressing to her cheek.
The couple of five years from Richmond were among the thousands of attendees who roamed the three-day Gilroy Garlic Festival to chow down on garlic delights, purchase garlic memorabilia and steal a few garlicky kisses.
“You can tell it’s a couple thing,” Wayne Williams said as he surveyed the crowd. “There’s nobody here alone.”
For Gerry and Jeanne Foisy, better known to attendees as Mr. and Mrs. Garlic and conspicuous for the bell-shaped, cloth garlic-bulb costume that he wears, no beer is needed.
The couple first attended the festival together in 1983, when Jeanne Foisy was a Gavilan College student.
It was just weeks before their marriage and an opportunity to introduce her fiance to her friends.
“She wanted to show me off,” Gerry Foisy joked.
In 1986, she convinced him to don the garlic costume and in the 21 years since, working as a team to greet attendees, the festival and its dishes have become a staple in their healthy marriage.
“Food speaks to a lot of people,” Jeanne Foisy said. “If you love food, it’s romantic.”
Whether attendees or volunteers, married for a long time or newly-met, couples agreed that the best part about the festival is that the pressure is off.
“You don’t have to worry about anybody’s breath stinking because you’re all eating garlic,” Wayne Williams said.
