"The community up there wasn't involved with garlic as they are down here," organizer Tony Noceti said over the phone. "With the Asparagus Festival, they are very supportive of that."
Noceti is a major part of the California Garlic Festival. He said that the love for the flavor crop just isn't the same in San Joaquin County.
"Getting it closer to Gilroy where it belongs, that's my whole concept," he said.
The Gilroy Garlic Festival permanently shut down in 2022, but Noceti is trying to bring it back to its original spot, and some organizers in Stockton agree with this move.
Visit Stockton CEO Wes Rhea said in a statement to CBS13:
"The community didn't jump out to the festival because it isn't like asparagus. Numbers didn't hit like other festivals' ticket numbers. [It's a] smart move to go to Los Banos, closer to Gilroy."
Last year, the California Garlic Festival had roughly 5,000 people the entire weekend. Rhea said that is partly because everything from admission to food and entertainment is expensive.
San Joaquin County saw garlic revenue drop roughly $2 million in its latest agriculture report.
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