GILROY
– It’s been seven years since John Parrinello has been to the
Garlic Festival.
GILROY – It’s been seven years since John Parrinello has been to the Garlic Festival.
It has been 61,152 hours since he has tasted garlic ice cream or walked through the arts and crafts area. It has been 3,679,200 minutes since he has sunk his teeth into a pepper steak sandwich and enjoyed the live music in the amphitheater – and he’s not letting another opportunity pass.
President in 1989, Parrinello is returning this summer for the 25th anniversary. After being manager of Pacific Gas and Electric in Gilroy for nine years, Parrinello was transfered to Lake County in the northwestern part of the state, where he continued with the company until his retirement in 1997. Now a resident of Sacramento, he doesn’t have many opportunities to travel down to Gilroy, but he is looking forward to catching up with people at this year’s festival.
“It will be nice to see old faces and all of the volunteers who make this event happen,” Parrinello said.
In 1989, the festival was still pretty young, and Parrinello said they were fortunate to have a lot of input from the founding fathers.
“Don Christopher and Rudy Melone really saw things through,” he said. “In those days, our main concern was looking for things to improve each coming year.”
One of the things Parrinello said improved during his term was structure and organization of the association.
“It really wasn’t my doing,” he said. “The comittees and the volunteers really made this thing happen. They had such amazing dedication.”
Another highlight of his presidency was the combined decision with the board to make the event more family friendly. The Children’s Area was put in place, the music schedule was mixed up and the beer availability was reduced. This made the festival attractive to a mixure of different groups of people.
Besides the group of volunteers that year, Parrinello got to meet another group that was so excited about garlic, they showed up a week in advance.
“We had groups of people in RVs camping out in the parking lot before the tents were even set up,” he said.
Parrinello said people could go to any food festival in the world, but they come to the Garlic Festival to celebrate with people of common interests.
“Obviously they come for the lure of garlic, but they also come because of the atmosphere,” he said. “People here are always having a tremendous time, and they share common interests.”
During his year of preparation, Parrinello noticed other communities commenting on the success of the festival.
“I would have members of other cities and festivals approach me and ask, ‘How do you guys do it?’ ” he said. “The unity of the residents to pull the festival off really makes Gilroy look like a good place to live.”
Parrinello gives the most credit to the founding fathers of the festival and said without their support and guidance, things wouldn’t have continued to be so successful.
“I think the way chair positions change every two years keeps new blood and fresh ideas coming in,” he said. “If the association keeps things running the way they have, there are endless possibilities for the future.”
