After only hours of being available, tickets to the Gilroy Garlic Festival sold out this weekend.
The Gilroy Garlic Festival is coming back six years after a tragic mass shooting brought the event to an end. The event will take place July 25-27 at a new location on the grounds of the Gilroy Gardens Theme Park.
In previous years, the Garlic Festival greeted over 100,000 visitors, attracting festival goers from around the world with a panoply of garlicky cuisine, live music, and cooking demos. This year, however, ticket sales were limited to only 3,000 slots a day, as part of an agreement with Gilroy Gardens and space limitations.
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After ticket sales went live at noon Saturday, tickets for both days sold out within minutes. All 9,000 tickets were all sold out by 6 p.m. Saturday, according to Paul Nadeau, president of the Gilroy Garlic festival.
“We are deeply grateful for the overwhelming support and look forward to welcoming our guests to a memorable celebration of community, flavor, and tradition,” said Nadeau, who notes the demand confirms the need to regrow the Garlic Festival. “It’s really been kind of bittersweet: We love the response, but we really, really want to do it for a larger audience.“
For those who were not able to grab tickets on the first round, the ticketing website, aftontickets.com/gilroygarlicfestival, has a waitlist. Nadeau says the organizers are working with the vendor to make sure that those who change plans can sell back their tickets to those on the waitlist at cost. Volunteers also will have access to the grounds after finishing their volunteer shift, and any sponsors will have tickets included with their sponsorship. He also notes that there may be some promotional options at other events put on by the Garlic Festival Association.
