Gilroy Garlic Festival announces return six years after mass shooting
Organizers of the Gilroy Garlic Festival have announced the event will return this summer in a new form at a new location, six years after the festival ended in a deadly mass shooting.
In a statement Saturday, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association announced the event will take place from July 25-27 at South County Grove at the Gilroy Gardens theme park.
"Gilroy has a long, proud tradition of bringing people together through garlic," Paul Nadeau, the association's president, said in a statement. "We are honored to welcome the community back to experience a fresh, vibrant version of the festival, rooted in the same values and mission that began more than four decades ago."
Organizers said the 2025 event is capped at 3,000 guests per day, which offers "a more intimate and immersive festival experience filled with flavorful foods, community spirit, and live entertainment."
The annual festival, which celebrates all things garlic, was held at Christmas Hill Park starting in 1979, drawing tens of thousands of people each year to the "Garlic Capital of the World."
The final day of the 2019 festival ended in tragedy when a gunman killed three people and wounded 17 others, before killing himself following a shootout with police. After the 2020 festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a drive-through event was held the following year before the festival was cancelled permanently in 2022.
Organizers said tickets to the 2025 festival will go on sale April 19, which is also known as National Garlic Day. No tickets will be sold at the door.
Additional information about the event can be found on the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association's website.
