Gilroy Garlic Festival

The Gilroy Garlic Festival was a food festival in the United States, held annually from 1979 to 2019 at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy, California, on the last full weekend in July. After its cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a drive-through festival was held on July 23–25 and 30–31 July and August 1, 2021. In April 2022, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association announced the indefinite suspension of the traditional large-format festival, and that it would instead host smaller individual events. In May 2022, the festival was canceled permanently.

An annual three-day event, the Gilroy Garlic Festival was one of the country's best known food festivals, drawing visitors from across the nation. Located about 30 mi southeast of San Jose, Gilroy is home to about 60,000 people, and the city is a major producer of garlic. The festival was Gilroy's top fundraiser, staffed with volunteers to raise money for nonprofit groups including clubs and schools.

History
The inaugural Garlic Festival was held in 1979. Rudolph J. Malone, then President of Gavilan College in Gilroy, was inspired by a small town in France which hosted an annual garlic festival and claimed to be the "Garlic Capital of the World." Malone started the festival, which attracted more than hundreds of thousands of paying visitors a year.

2019 shooting
On July 28, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at the 41st edition of the festival. Three people were killed, in addition to the gunman, and 12 others were injured.

COVID-19 pandemic and cancellation
The festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while 2021 saw a drive-thru festival. In April 2022, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association announced that the event will be canceled indefinitely due to prolonged losses, "lingering uncertainties from the pandemic," and "prohibitive insurance requirements by the City of Gilroy" since the 2019 shooting.

In popular culture
The Garlic Festival was featured by Huell Howser in Road Trip Episode 124.