The 2022 South Cariboo Garlic Festival broke all previous attendance records this weekend with 2,332 people attending on Saturday alone.
At one point, vehicles waiting to get into the festival backed up traffic on Hwy. 97 almost to Lac La Hache as visitors from 100 Mile House, Williams Lake and beyond streamed into the festival grounds just north of Lac La Hache. For head organizer Jeanette McCrea, the turnout validated all the hard work she and her volunteers put into the event.
“I’m a little overwhelmed, it was a huge success. I’ve never seen this many people on a Saturday,” McCrea said. “Usually, in a normal festival, for both days we count 4,200 adults, that’s a busy normal festival. Saturday was not a normal day, it was way better than I’ve ever seen.”
The festival featured no carnival games this year but offered 62 vendors and food trucks as well as live music for attendees to enjoy. Renee McKeown came down from Williams Lake to renew a family tradition of attending the festival with her family.
“We’re very excited to come back to the garlic festival. I think it started in 2000 and I’ve been coming just about every year,” McKeown said. “This is the one time a year I get to see some people I don’t always get to see.”
Several of the vendors were new to the garlic festival, including Brandi Smith of Bessette Creek Farm. Smith said she and her family grow eight different varieties of garlic across eight acres, many of which they brought to the festival. They started farming three years ago after leaving their former careers in Alberta.
“It’s a steep learning curve, we’ve been running uphill really fast, but so far it’s been working out,” Smith said. “This is our first time at the festival and it’s been amazing. It’s very well organized and well attended even at 9 a.m., in the rain.”
Smith said she definitely plans to return to the festival next year “hands down.”
Veteran vendor Doug Saba, owner and operator of Early Willow Farm, agreed with McCrea this is the best-attended garlic festival he’s ever been to. Saba has been growling garlic and other organic food for 22 years. He said the pandemic shutting down the festival for two years was actually a good thing for him.
“I grow a lot of different vegetables, I don’t put all my eggs in one basket,” Saba said. “I had two years of poor crop, so in some ways it was good because I couldn’t have really gone to the festival (anyway).”
Saba said that even after all these years he’s not quite sure what the excitement for garlic is all about. Next to strawberries, he said garlic is his most popular crop and while he doesn’t understand it, he likes it.
READ MORE: Garlic Festival growing in popularity
Despite the success, McCrea said this is the last year she’ll be organizing the festival. After running it for 12 years, she said it’s time to pass the torch on to a new organizer who will be able to take the event to new heights.
“I’d be more than willing to help someone and get them going on it. It’s really not that bad, vendors come to you and they want to be in this festival,” McCrea said.
Anyone interested in taking over is invited to contact McCrea at 250-706-8566 or through the garlic festival’s Facebook page.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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