Gays Eating Garlic Bread event to raise money for flood recovery

The Gays Eating Garlic Bread festival will feature food and drink vendors which will of course include garlic bread. (Graphic courtesy of Gays Eating Garlic Bread)

The first-ever Gays Eating Garlic Bread festival in downtown Sioux City will take place in August to raise money for flood recovery.

What started as a small, fun event for a few friends to hang out and eat garlic bread was changed significantly after the original site was flooded, organizers said.

Linus Countryman, founder of Sioux City’s Gays Eating Garlic Bread , said the event was initially going to be canceled after the flood but those involved still wanted to do something and help the local community recover from the disaster.

“We were affected so much by this [flood] so how would the people who lost their houses feel,” Countryman said. “That’s always been really the goal since that point was to focus on the community that has already done so much just to help get the event off ground. We’re doing what we can to give that support back to the community.”

The planned street festival on Aug. 10 will be larger than the original plan.

L ive music, raffle prizes, face painting, selfie stations, street chalk art, an auction, an adult drag show, and food and drink vendors will be available with all proceeds going toward the Siouxland Recovery Fund. Garlic bread, the event’s namesake, will also be given out throughout the event.

Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets for the event.

The eight-hour event along Virginia Street from Third Street to Fourth Street in downtown Sioux City will feature family hours from 3-5 p.m. After family hours, the festival will feature local live music performances and a free drag show performed by local drag queens until 11 p.m.

DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST

Elizabeth Stewart, events coordinator for Gays Eating Garlic Bread, said the festival is going to both help the community recover and be a fantastic time.

“This event is going to be awesome,” Stewart said. “We’re so thrilled to bring everyone together for a great cause and make everyone feel included at a time that’s been hard for everybody.”

While this is the first Gays Eating Garlic Bread event in Sioux City, other cities like Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Omaha have also hosted similar events. The original, started in Seattle, began as a post on TikTok showing a poster for the event which went viral.

However, Sioux City’s version separates itself from the others with its focus on fundraising for a cause.

Vendors for the festival don’t need to pay a vendor fee but are asked to donate items for the raffle and auction. Stewart said this was done to maximize the amount of money to flood recovery efforts possible.

“We want to donate as much as we can to recovery efforts because that’s what this is about,” Stewart said.

Interested art vendors can fill out this form and volunteers for the festival can fill out this form .

Countryman said they hope to make Gays Eating Garlic Bread an annual event with a different fundraising cause every year.

“T his started as a small event I was planning on my phone and now we’re being picked up by news stations and having to write press statements,” Countryman said. “We just want this to be the best event we can put on.”

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX