Despite the love that teenage girls, and, oddly, countless adults, have for the vampires in True Blood and Twilight, you can’t forget that there are still some evil bloodsuckers out there. Thankfully, the Gilroy Garlic Festival has your back.
Gilroy hosted its first garlic festival in 1979. Since then, the event has grown into a three-day orgy of music, arts and crafts, celebrity hosts, and garlic. You can smell the bulbs miles before you see the small California town. Some of the treats concocted for visitors include garlic ice cream, garlic fries, pesto, garlic chocolate, garlic almonds, and pretty much any other food that has been infused with garlic. To my knowledge, there aren’t any garlic milkshakes. Maybe I’ll have to apply for a booth next year.
Garlic ice cream and chocolate might not sound like a tasty combination, but the flavor is surprisingly delicious, a combination of sweet and savory that confuses the tongue for a brief moment.
This year’s Gilroy Garlic Festival will also have plenty of musical entertainment. Lots of musical styles are represented, included a barber shop quartet. You can view the list of acts at the Gilroy Garlic Festival website.
Gilroy also sponsors an annual beauty and talent pageant. Unfortunately, the pageant takes place before the festival; this year’s winner has already been chosen. According to the festival’s website, the pageant participants are judged in four categories: personal interview, talent, evening gown, and garlic speech…
(Image via: Pretty Garlic)