33rd Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival Now Underway

GILROY (KCBS) - Tens of thousands of food lovers are expected to turn out this weekend for the 33rd annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Many people lined up early Friday morning to be the first through the gates, including San Jose resident Mimi McDonald.

McDonald has been coming to the now world-famous food festival for the past 20 years and has a system for covering the event.

KCBS' Matt Bigler:

"We're going to spread out and go to three different vendors, right off the bat, and that'll be our breakfast," she said.

"And then we just get little bits of food from then until three o'clock or so and then go home and take a nap."

Celebrity Chef Mike Giletto from New York, who also was on hand for the opening day, uses garlic in many of his dishes.

"I try to find happy mediums to use it and use it as a flavor missile."

The festival serves about 100,000 people and burns through roughly 4,000 pounds of garlic in one weekend.