Skip to main content Currently Reading The Gilroy Garlic Festival is coming back this year, for the first time since the 2019 mass shooting FacebookTwitterEmail Baskets of garlic are weighed after the garlic topping contest at the 20th Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California.Judith Calson / KRT The Gilroy Garlic Festival is preparing to return this summer after it was shut down last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said. This year’s event will also be the first since the deadly mass shooting at the festival in 2019. The festival’s 42nd iteration will look different because of pandemic restrictions, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association said. Events such as the proposed drive-through Gourmet Alley, a farm-to-table dinner and a charity golf tournament will be socially distanced. Other festivities will be virtual.