Mary Avila just couldn’t wait to start her three-day garlic
binge. She arrived at 7:40 a.m. and set up her chair, securing the
first spot in line and a front row seat for the ceremonial lighting
of burners in Gourmet Alley.
the opening ceremonies and of the Also check out more pictures
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The newly renamed Val’s Kitchen was humming on the first day of the 30th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival and the godfather of garlic would have been proud. The calamari was flaming, the tunes were blaring and garlic ice cream was everywhere – in mouths and in trash cans.
Despite a few minor hiccups, the day went off without a hitch, festival staff reported. Fridays are always a little hectic while volunteers and staff polish up on the skills that have grown rusty after a year, said Joann Kessler, the Garlic Festival Association’s assistant executive director.
“There’s always things to be ironed out on a Friday,” she said, “but nothing that couldn’t be handled.”
Executive Director Brian Bowe agreed: “I think the day went fabulously,” he said. “The weather was gorgeous, we had a great crowd. There were no real speed bumps. Everything seemed to flow pretty smoothly. The volunteers really stepped up, from the board of directors on down.”
A clogged sink here, a long line for peppersteak sandwiches there – for the most part, the glitches were minor, thanks to the volunteers who scurried around in the intense heat of Gourmet Alley.
“All you see is heat waves,” said Steve Ashford, who was in charge of quality control for Gourmet Alley, as he gestured to the ripples that rose over the heads of volunteers. Even he had to lie down for a moment when a heat spell hit him earlier in the day.
Taking a breather, Bob Filice reminisced about the 29 years he spent at the side of his father – Val Filice, the festival’s founder who died late last year. Together, they perfected their famous scampi recipe with a not-so-secret ingredient: lobster butter sauce made with clam juice.
“Dad and I have been doing this since year one,” he said, sporting his signature tri-colored hat. “He was a great big teddy bear.”
Before the gates opened, Gourmet Alley was renamed Val’s Kitchen in honor of the founder. The dedication was part of an elaborate pre-opening ceremony, which started with a human chain that was set up stretching from the flaming metallic garlic bulb near the entrance to the pyro chef area of Gourmet Alley, about 200 feet away. To the sound of The Doors’ Light My Fire played on accordion, festival President Ed Struzik climbed a ladder and dipped a torch into the bulb’s flame.
“Here we go,” he yelled. “It’s on.”
The torch then wound its way, passed hand to hand, from past festival presidents to dozens of members of Gilroy’s sister cities to Mayor Al Pinheiro to the garlic queen and her court to, finally, pyro chef Bob Filice.
With torch in hand, he and the other chefs unveiled a poster dedicating Gourmet Alley to Val Filice. On the sepia-toned poster, Val Filice is laughing while stirring a giant pot with a long wooden spoon.
“Now it’s called Val’s Kitchen,” Gourmet Alley volunteer Ken Fry said. “May the flames be with you.”
Bob Filice then touched the flame to a burner and it flared up, delighting the 100 or so volunteers who had crowded around to watch. Cries of “mangia” came from all around.
Moments later, Struzik gave the OK to open the festival gates with a wave of his hand and dozens of people started filing in. Among those eagerly awaiting was Mary Avila, who couldn’t wait to start her three-day garlic binge. She arrived at 7:40 a.m. and set up her chair, securing the first spot in line and a front row seat for the ceremonial lighting of burners in Gourmet Alley.
“I’m ready to go in there and eat and have a good time, listen to music, Sha-Boom, get my bobblehead,” she said. “I’ll be here three days.”
True to her intentions, as soon as the gates opened, she took off for the ranch side mercantile tent and purchased several Herbie bobblehead dolls, among other items. The tent already had a line several dozen long of volunteers outside the “Herbie Express” area. This year, Herbie was dressed in a garlic bulb costume, mimicking the dress of locally famous Gerry Foisy, otherwise know as Mr. Garlic, who comes dressed in a sleeveless garlic bulb costume every year.
“The bobbleheads have been really hot,” said Garlic Mercantile Manager Diane Stephens. “Everybody loves Mr. Garlic.”
The dolls, however, did not sell out to Friday’s crowd, she said.
Herbie was not the only hot item at the Garlic Mercantile. Stemless wine glasses emblazoned with the 2008 Garlic Festival logo sold like hotcakes, Bowe said..
Nearby, merchants Steven Albaranes and Florence Palaruan sold their exotic butterfly art underneath a tapestried shade.
The couple sold vibrant butterflies encased and preserved in clear plastic from South America, Indonesia, Papau, New Gunieaa.
“Only exotics,” said Albaranes, who has been coming to the Garlic Festival since 1990 to pedal his wall decorations for a few hundred dollars each.
“We love the Gilroy Garlic Festival because hundreds of thousands of people come here,” Albaranes said. “Anything with garlic. The garlic sausages were delicious.”
“You can just smell the strong, pungent odors everywhere,” Palaruan added.
By the middle of the day, the heat hit a high of 92 degrees and people flocked to the refreshing mist tents, where people splayed out in the mist spraying from tiny tubes tied into the tent rafters. Other festival-goers tried to beat the heat with a cone of garlic ice cream.
“No, you try it!” was a common refrain.
Far away from the free garlic ice cream, Naomi Mustari and her boyfriend, James Robinson, sat in the shaded grass with the former’s grandson from Hawaii.
“We’re feeling great, enjoying the weather, and there’s a perfect crowd out today,” Mustari said. She and Robinson came down from San Francisco for their second time but Benjahman Mustari, Mustari’s adolescent grandson, seemed hard to please.
“It’s cool,” he said as he quietly scanned the crowd.
“The food. The fried calamari. The scampi,” Mustari said.
“Oohh, the scampi,” hummed Robinson. “The food’s first, then the entertainment.”
In the background, the voice of Kate Russell could be heard.
The Australia singer, sporting blonde-auburn hair, wrapped up her 20-song set with autographs and plenty of “You’re beautiful” compliments shouted out by middle-aged men.
To keep all the food, drink and entertainment running as smoothly as possible, a cadre of volunteers had been busying themselves since dawn.
Two freshmen garlic festival patrons included recently hired Gilroy Police Department Chief Denise Turner and City Administrator Tom Haglund, who chuckled about the fun-feeling atmosphere compared to the tedium of city council meetings.
“The most impressive thing is all the volunteer effort,” said Haglund, who came from Hanford, after Capt. Kurt Svardal gave him and Turner – who came from the Seattle area – a briefing-slash-overview of the festival.
“It’s amazing'” Turner said. “I haven’t had breakfast, so I’m looking forward to a peppersteak sandwich.”
In the back prepping the popular beef sandwich and stirring scampi sauce like there was no tomorrow was festival volunteer and Morgan Hill resident Alfred Alciati .
“This is sauce city. This is the heart of the Garlic Festival,” said the 17-year festival veteran as he mixed an odorous 20 gallon stainless steel pot of the creamy concoction with a wooden spoon.
Alciati attended the first festival in 1979, which “got me interested in volunteering,” he said. The hardest part is the heat, but it’s worth it for the money he brings in for disabled students at Antonio Del Buono Elementary School.
A few feet away Kathy Doughty chopped basil with her daughter, Laura Doughty, but they were not exactly sure what for.
“Someone just comes and takes the bucket every now and then,” Laura Doughty said, giggling with her mother. Kathy Doughty has been volunteering for five years, she said, and the mother-daughter duo were giving their time for the GHS Choir.
“I love working with my daughter, but standing for hours and hours is hard,” Kathy Doughty said.
“Yeah, the food’s good,” said Spencer McManus, 15, a sophomore at Gilroy High School who sold Gatorade and other thirst quenchers on behalf of GHS Leadership, which funds dances and other student happenings. This is his first time volunteering, second time attending, according to the recent emigrant from Cupertino.
“I love it here. It’s a close-knit community that’s growing at the same time,” McManus said.
“I like interacting with people and volunteering, and it’s for a good cause. And I love Ms. Berggren,” McManus added as Julie Berggren, the director of student activities at Gilroy High School walked by. With school less than a month away, she was busy stuffing envelopes with freshmen orientation letters.
Other volunteers included emergency medical technicians, who took care of 45 people who suffered from bee and hornet stings and heat exhaustion. However, that was not a high number of incidents for the festival, the medics reported.
“It’s been rather quiet,” said Peg Geringer, a medic with Emergency Medical Services. “We just tell people to drink water, stay in the shade, use sunscreen and wear wide-brimmed hats.”
One volunteer heeding this advice was Scott LeBlanc, a Gilroyan who works for TaTech Steel, which set up the columns for the sun screens protecting hungry patrons from the sun. LeBlanc was taking a break merrymaking in the sun, drinking Budweiser with his brother, Mike LeBlanc, who stood in the sun next to him in a gossamer red shirt unbuttoned half way.
“I like people watching, and the entertainment,” Mike LeBlanc said.
“The beer,” added his girlfriend, Deneene Lundberg. “And the food.”
The couple hailed from Duluth, Minnesota – the hometown of Bob Dylan, Mike LeBlanc pointed out – and flew out here after succumbing to the siren of the garlic gala a few years ago.
Whatever the reason for coming, there is one thing that holds the festival all together Scott LeBlanc said.
“What makes the Garlic Festival so special is all the volunteers that make it all happen.”
Online Editor Christopher Quirk contributed reporting to this article.
