Warm Weather Greets Opening Day of Gilroy's Garlic Festival

Patch is an official sponsor of the Gilroy Garlic festival. Stop by our booth and say hello. We'd love to meet you, and we'll have tons of Patch goodies to give away.

You can find it on top of fries, in chili, and even in ice cream, and this weekend, you can find the vegetable in abundance at the 33rd annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.

The weekend-long celebration of all things garlic kicked off today at 10 a.m. Friday in Gilroy's Christmas Hill Park with live music, food and entertainment.

The festival will include cooking demos, a cook-off, three stages of musical entertainment, handmade arts and crafts, the Miss Gilroy Garlic pageant, the appearance of Bravo TV's "Top Chef" competitor Angelo Sosa, and an interactive children's area.

For garlic-lovers, there will be no shortage of the star ingredient - guests can sample stuffed mushrooms, pepper steak sandwiches, pasta con pesto, calamari, scampi, Italian sausage sandwiches, garlic bread and garlic fries.

A new item this year is the "Surf & Turf Alley Wrap," which comes with steak, shrimp, rice, cilantro and garlic aioli wrapped in a garlic-infused lavash.

Admission for adults is $17 and kids aged 6 to 12 years old get in for $8 as do seniors 60 years old and up. Tickets and information are available at http://www.gilroygarlicfestival.com.

Doors open at 10 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday and gates close at 6 p.m.