Overview The Gilroy Garlic Festival is the July food festival in Gilroy, California, a garlic-growing town about 30 miles southeast of San Jose, and its center is Gourmet Alley, where the Pyro Chefs flame giant skillets of garlic scampi and calamari in front of the crowd. Volunteers run the entire event to raise money for their own charities, and the festival says it has raised millions for local schools and nonprofits since it started in 1979. The Gilroy Garlic Festival Association also runs a songwriter music event and the Garlic Golf Classic, both held in June in 2025. On site Beyond Gourmet Alley, the menu runs from pepper steak sandwiches to garlic fries and garlic ice cream. Chefs work a demo stage through the weekend, local and regional acts play the entertainment stage, and arts and crafts vendors fill the rest of the grounds. In 2026 the festival moved to the Hecker Pass Outdoor Events Center in Gilroy. In 2025 the music event was held at Clos LaChance Winery and the golf classic at Gilroy Golf Course. Track record Gavilan College president Rudy Melone started the festival in 1979, inspired by a garlic festival in a French town, and it ran every July through 2019, drawing as many as 100,000 people. After a 2019 shooting, the pandemic and rising insurance costs, it ran as a drive-through in 2021 and was suspended in 2022. It came back in 2025 at Gilroy Gardens with attendance capped at 3,000 a day, and in July 2026 it welcomed 12,000 people at Hecker Pass. Brand presence Sponsorships are named in cloves: Gold, Silver and Bronze Clove, then Garlic Bulb and Spicy. One sponsorship covers all three events. Depending on level it brings three-day festival passes with VIP entrance and hospitality-area access, VIP parking, golf classic tickets with a hole sponsorship, songwriter event tickets, a booth or display space, and banners at Gourmet Alley, the Demo Stage and the Entertainment Stage, plus social posts and a mention in the association's wrap-up e-blast.