'Healed and ready': Gilroy Garlic Festival returns to city, six years after deadly shooting
After 6 year hiatus Gilroy Garlic Festival returns
For the first time since a mass shooting in 2019, the Gilroy Garlic Festival opened to the public on Friday. The South Bay summer staple has moved to a smaller venue with fewer vendors and less attendees over the three-day event.
GILROY, Calif. - The flame atop the garlic bulb kicked off a weekend of garlic galore in Gilroy on Friday.
A ceremonial torch was passed down a line of volunteers, reaching the first fire-grill.
It took six years to get to this beginning. In 2019, a gunman killed three people at the Gilroy Garlic Festival and hurt more than a dozen others before taking his own life.
Paul Nadaeu, the president of the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association, was the head of transportation at the time.
He said he was about 200 feet away at the time of the shooting, transporting people back to their cars.
"It was pretty horrific, but we've come a long way since then," he said. "We feel really good about it and I think that’s one of the reasons today we want to show the community and the world that we've healed and we're ready."
They’re ready on a smaller scale.
Only 9,000 people will attend the three-day event, compared to 100,000 in years past.
Whitney Pintello has volunteered at the festival nearly her entire life.
She now sells glass artwork.
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Pintello is ready to turn the page of the historic festival, but will always remember that day in 2019.
"My husband used to be a firearms instructor and whenever I hear fireworks, he says ‘don’t worry’ and that day when I heard it, we dove for cover," she said.
The festival is full of private security and police officers.
Finding a way to bring it back is one of the top reasons Mayor Greg Bozzo decided to run for public office for the first time in his life.
"We had a difficult time, and doing that, the festival association members worked hard every single year to provide something to this community," Bozzo said. "We never wanted to let go. It’s been a long road, we're finally back."
Now the tradition focuses on spreading the garlic-flavor food and drinks, and eventually light the bulb flame with a crowd size they are used to.
"We want to size up the festival so that it;s sensible for the city and community and enables our festival-goers to enjoy the festival, and we definitely want to be at least 5 times larger than we are today," the association’s president, Nadeau, said.
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