GILROY
– The milder the weather the better, according to staff and
volunteers at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, who each have a war story
from the sometimes scorching July temperatures.
GILROY – The milder the weather the better, according to staff and volunteers at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, who each have a war story from the sometimes scorching July temperatures.
“When I was in the utilities committee, I remember running around with my tool belt on and my big sunshade hat and sweat just pouring off my face,” festival President John Zekanoski said of one particularly fiery fest.
“The hottest one that I’ve participated in was probably 108,” said Executive Director Dick Nicholls, who has been involved with the festival for the last 24 years.
“It was tough,” he added. “It’s tough on the volunteers who need to be out, and it’s tough on those of us who need to put in those 12 or 14 hour days.”
Organizers are hoping for a mild weekend for the Garlic Festival, and they just might get it – temperatures are predicted to be a temperate 86 degrees on Friday, 86 degrees on Saturday and 87 degrees on Sunday, according to the Weather Channel.
Nicholls said he remembers about six or eight years when the temperatures peaked into the 100s; those are the years, he said, when attendance dipped.
“In general when it gets real hot people will look at other alternatives,” Nicholls said. “They’ll say, ‘Well maybe we’ll hit the beach this year.’ Those are the alternatives that people look at that they normally wouldn’t.”
The fest has enjoyed milder temperatures in the last few years, ranging from 78 to 94 since 1999, according to the Western Region Climate Center, a part of the National Climatic Date Center. According to Nicholls, attendance doesn’t really drop until the mercury rises into the upper 90s.
In 2000, the temperature rose to a high point of 92 degrees; that year the attendance dipped 3,662 people from 1999. In 2001, temperatures were a mild 83, 84 and 81 degrees for the weekend, and the attendance climbed 4,671 people from 2000.
“Weather is the single biggest factor in attendance for us, and it’s the one thing we just can’t control,” Nicholls said.
Often, organizers said, people will still make it to the festival – especially from places such as the San Francisco Bay area – but they come early and leave by mid-afternoon.
In an effort to help patrons beat the heat, festival organizers have donated money to put down turf to keep Christmas Hill Park cooler, and will set up a shaded area for children, bigger and more numerous shade tents and pressurized misting tents called Rain Rooms during the festival.
“It can be just really hot outside and you walk into this Rain Room and it’s really cool and refreshing,” Zekanoski said, adding that if it gets really hot there are emergency services personnel standing by, including paramedics on bicycles and a first-aid station.
So if you ask organizers, what’s the perfect temperature for a Garlic Festival?
“I’ll tell you if we’re going to have 86 and 87 (degrees) – I think it’s it right there,” Zekanoski said. “Because that’s just enough for you to enjoy the sun without being beat down by it.”
