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GILROY — For 33 years, Georgia natives Dave and Pam Dietz have hosted garlic parties in their home just outside Atlanta. Their annual tradition regularly draws 90 guests, all of whom must bring something garlicky to share: pasta, chocolate, dips and more.
This year, for the first time, the Dietzes made the pilgrimage to what may be the biggest garlic party in the world: the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
“It was Dave’s Christmas gift,” said Pam.
The Dietzes are among a growing band of garlic lovers who travel from out-of-state and across the globe to binge on the bulb in the Bay Area city that considers itself “the garlic capital of the world.”
Cookie Wayte, a fiber artist who makes scarves to sell in art shows, flew in from St. Augustine, Florida. Marla Cohen and Matt Unger, empty nesters and foodies who have traveled all over the world for exotic eats, made the trip from Cincinnati.
The Dietzes, who have owned the festival’s “Garlic Lovers Cookbook” since the 1980s, have been wanting to come to the festival for years. Dave comes from a long tradition of garlic aficionados: his grandparents grew the root known as the “stinking rose” in Ohio, and both grandparents and grandchildren eat it every day.
On Friday morning, the out-of-towners showed up for the festival’s opening day and settled in to watch two teams of first responders compete in a garlic-themed, MasterChef-style cookoff, hosted by Season 9 winner Gerron Hurt.
“I already got a picture with Gerron,” Wayte said.
Wayte arrived decked out in garlic hat and earrings, which she bought two decades ago in anticipation of this very moment. She first heard of the Gilroy Garlic Festival a few years before from her sister’s ex-husband, but family visits every July meant she was never able to make the trip. When they cancelled this year, Wayte — a retired Delta employee who flies for free — jumped at the chance to come.
“This morning, I got up early and sweet-talked the Garlic City Cafe to make me their garlic soup,” she said. “Breakfast of champions.”
Though Wayte now lives in Florida, she’s originally from Ohio — coincidentally, very close to where Cohen and Unger live, as they discovered when they met on the bus Friday morning. Cohen and Unger describe themselves as “festival seekers” looking for “the best the world has to offer”: since their kids moved out, they’ve traveled around the globe to an “embarrassing” number of festivals, including ones in Germany and France.
In Gilroy, they said, they’ve enjoyed getting to see the farms their produce comes from — including Christopher Ranch, which supplies the festival with its signature ingredient.
For that reason, they call their trip to Gilroy educational, and say they’re looking forward to a weekend of music and cooking demonstrations, but admit, through laughter, that at the festival they’re excited to “mostly eat.”
Gourmet Alley, the outdoor kitchen that sells the festival’s official food, offers garlicky favorites like shrimp, calamari and scampi, served up by “pyro chefs” whose iron skillets periodically erupt into flame.
And, of course, there’s the famous — and polarizing — garlic ice cream, provided for free by the cook-off stage. All five visitors gave it good reviews; the Dietzes, who make their own, called it “comparable” to what they serve their guests at home.
“It’s a good starter,” said Unger. “It whets your appetite.”
Luckily for Unger, and the festival’s anticipated 100,000 other guests, there’s plenty more to eat.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO GO
When: Friday-Sunday, July 26-28. Note the varying hours: it’s 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Where: 7050 Miller Ave. in Gilroy. Roads are closed around the festival, so follow the signs on Highway 101 south and other freeways to this year’s parking lots.
How much: Buy online — or at any Raley’s, Nob Hill or Bel Air store — to save $2 per ticket: tickets are $18 online/store for adults (or $20 at the gate), $13 for seniors 60-plus (or $15 at the gate) and $8 for youths ages 10-16 (or $10 at the gate). Kids 9 and under get in free. Parking will add another $15. Alternatively, opting for the Gilroy Garlic Train that leaves 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday from San Jose Diridion Station will cost $43 for adults, $38 for seniors and $33 for youths, but ticket prices are included.
How hot: Gilroy temperatures are expected to climb to 96 degrees on Saturday, historically the festival’s busiest day. And Sunday, with a high of 90, doesn’t look much better.
Highlights: Cooking competitions will take place all weekend at the cook-off stage. You can hear live music — country, rock, blues, jazz, swing, reggae — on three stages, but the headliner is Grammy-winning country star Colbie Caillat’s 6 p.m. Saturday concert.
