GILROY, Calif. — This year’s edition of California’s beloved Gilroy Garlic Festival has been canceled and the annual event's future is uncertain, organizers announced.
The celebration of the pungent vegetable has been held for more than 40 years, drawing huge crowds over three days to farm country 80 miles (129 kilometers) south of San Francisco.
“Due to lingering uncertainties from the pandemic, along with the prohibitive insurance requirements by the City of Gilroy, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Board has decided not to move ahead with a traditional festival for 2022 — and perhaps the foreseeable future,” the festival association said in a social media post Friday.
The association said the city was requiring that the festival have much more insurance than the minimum general liability coverage of $1 million.
The festival was under pressure before the pandemic.
In 2019, a 19-year-old gunman attacked the event, killing three people and wounding 13 others before killing himself as police officers closed in. Related lawsuits are pending.
Tom Cline, past president of the group, told The Mercury News that the event has faced financial challenges in eight of the last 10 years.
The association statement pledged to find a way to hold a “more intimate, local festival.”
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