The original Garlic Festival began in the small community of Gilroy, a town in central California, U.S.A. Gilroy's Festival lasts 3 days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and entertains approximately 100,000 to 200,000 people. It is basically a fundraiser and service clubs volunteer their time during the festival and thus share in all the monies which are in turn absorbed by the needy. The Sudbury Garlic Festival is a smaller version of the Gilroy Festival.
The First Garlic Festival in Sudbury was in 1992 and was initiated by Mary Stefura, founder of the Ukrainian Seniors' Centre as a fundraiser to help offset operating costs of the Centre which was built in 1988. The "fun" reputation of the Festival has grown and has been recognized with an article featured in Chatelaine in June 1996.
The main sponsors of the Canadian Garlic Festival are the local Ukrainian community, a local food chain, a local community newspaper, and the Toronto Dominion Bank sponsors our children's activities. Many other local businesses also contribute to our cause.
Contests over the years included a Hat Competition, a Stroller Competition and several years included a Cook-off competition. Three cookbooks which included recipes that were submitted for the recipe competitions have been produced.
The highlight in 1994 was a continuous garlic braid measuring 78 feet, 4 inches. The garlic was grown in the Sudbury region by a trio of gentlemen farmers, Marcel Ethier, Morris Hucal, and Mike Sharko (the 3 M's). Mr. Ted Dziuba, a Ukrainian senior, helped our farmers create the braid. The "longest garlic braid" was entered with the Guinness Book of Records in London, England surpassing a claimed record of 63 feet, 7 inches by Lillian Spencer of Gilroy, California, U.S.A. Unfortunately, space being limited, Guinness at that time did not publish a record for garlic braiding, but our documented claim was put on file for possible future reference.
Since 1994 several countries have participated in attempting to break the record for longest garlic string. For the 2001 Festival, a subgroup from the Festival Commitee made a second effort to braid the longest garlic string. The members consisted of Ted Dolhy, Annie & Bill Kozak, Nick Nykilchuk, Stella Onucky, Marilyn Onucky-Vervega, and Sandra & Mike Sharko. The braid measured 229.01 feet. We finally received confirmation of the official record but before the year was out, a grocery line in England entered a braid longer than ours - isn't that the luck! But all was not lost - we enjoyed creating the braid and we had broken the existing record.
The Festival is basically a food festival featuring Ukrainian foods containing quantities of garlic. Nibblers include garlic ice-cream, garlic fudge, garlic chocolate chip cookies and other garlic desserts.
In 2001 we also included a Saturday Chili cook-off. Both competitors and spectators enjoyed the day. Entertainment was provided by Zabava an internationally known Ukrainian Band.
Entertainment for the Sunday afternoon features a variety of musicians, clowns, our local Ukrainian Dnipro Choir, the Veselka Dancers and other cultural choir groups and dancers. They all volunteer their talents that day and many help out with the pre-festival cooking and preparations.
Crowds of 5000 people jam our facilities in downtown Sudbury to fill their tummies with a variety of garlic nibblers and to partake in a day of entertainment, workshops, competition and family fun. People have attended our Festival from points as far west as Saskatchewan and east to St. John's, Newfoundland. Guests arrive from London, Toronto, Sault Ste Marie, Ottawa, Grimsby - the list of out-of-town visitors keeps growing. For the year 2001, people had written or telephoned our Festival chairperson from points as far west as Saskatchewan and east to St. John=s, Newfoundland. Letters arrived from London, Toronto, Sault Ste Marie, Ottawa, Grimsby and the list kept growing.
A committee of approximately 7 - 8 people start meetings in January of the year. Each person looks after one or more events eg. Nibblers (all a la carte), Main meal, Site Plan, Entertainment, Advertising, and Events.
We look for major sponsors and then begin with all the small details of running the festival. One of our largest jobs is recruiting good volunteers.