Call it a food festival if you want — Garlic Fest spends a surprising amount of time doing everything but.
Sixteen paws, zero business degrees
Down Northampton Street, four Bernese Mountain dogs appeared to staff the army green “BernerBus,” experts in the farm-raised beef bones and natural bug repellent sold by their owner, The Dog Bone Guy.
Despite their inability to decide who should man the bus window and their penchant for drooling on the display products, the dogs were excellent salesmen and drew in crowds eager to get a pet and a selfie.
“This is all they do all day,” said Anthony Wajda, owner of the New Jersey-based natural dog treat company. “Eat and get photographed.”
One sign notified customers that the dogs were “very friendly,” but may “try to hold your sleeve so that you don’t leave.”
“I wouldn’t ever want to leave,” said one customer as she petted the dog.
A fashionista’s playground
At Token 249’s booth, owner Inger Olsen displayed a wide array of noodle bowls and large, knit cowls. The oversized nature of these hooded scarf garments was made clear by the striking sign in front of them: “Big Ass Cowls.”
Many customers could be spotted taking turns trying on the big ass display cowl, most swimming in it.
“It is very cozy,” said Olsen, confirming that the cowl was indeed larger than average.
Other hats of note at the competition were the volunteer-made paper hats, fashioned out of beige butcher paper and green construction paper to form little garlic caps, made-to-order for each wearer’s desired hat height and head circumference.
One Garlic Fest attendee sported a hat several feet tall, though it quickly caved to the wind.
The relay no one trained for
This year saw the festival’s inaugural “Stinkin’ Rose Relay,” with three Lehigh Valley chefs working together to craft a meal, each getting around 10 minutes with the dish before passing the torch to the next.
Cristian Gonzalez, the executive chef of Allentown’s The Shelby restaurant, kicked off the event, scrambling to select ingredients and get them pan-ready for the next chef.
“I just hope they understand,” Gonzalez said, arranging a raw steak, a handful of seasoning and a wrapped stick of butter in a cold pan.
Amanda Cox, chef and owner at Foxi Ice Cream, was the second leg. After getting the lay of the scene and recovering from a small hot-pan-melting-into-a-cutting-board mishap, Cox got to work cooking.
“Christian gave me a really good bed to lie on, and now I’m messing up the covers a bit,” Cox said, swirling a pan of chard and minced hot oil garlic.
Ten minutes later, Sette Luna head chef Adan Campos brought up the rear. His focus was palpable.
“What are you thinking?” asked the competition’s host. “What are you going for first?”
“Meat,” Campos replied.
After a quick taste test of the final dish — steak, tomato ravioli and Swiss chard, with a lot of minced garlic — the chefs unanimously gave themselves a pass.
“I set it up, they took it home,” Gonzalez said.
Tall order for festival smiles
Ray and Erin Grins wore chef coats and carried long ropes of garlic bulbs at Garlic Fest. They also towered over the crowd, their stilts enabling them to lumber over the hordes of garlic seekers.
“I don’t like the ‘F word,’” said Erin Grins when asked if she ever worried about falling. Trailing her around the festival was quite difficult, her strides exceedingly long.
“Everybody always asks if my legs get tired on stilts,” Ray Grins said. “My legs get a little tired, but our faces get tired because we take thousands of photographs. We’re smiling basically for 24 hours straight.”
The couple is a common face at downtown Easton festivals and, staying true to their surname, they also own Easton’s Off-Center Escape Rooms.
Five hours inside a clove
Garlic Fest volunteer Michael Kinara — a student at Easton Area High School — wore the “stinky garlic” suit, a deflated-looking felt garlic clove costume with rather sad eyes.
“It’s pretty hot, not comfortable,” Kinara said, going on to describe the typical reaction to the suit as fear followed by an “Oh” moment.
His first year at Garlic Fest, Kinara said he was connected to the volunteer opportunity through the Future Business Leaders of America, a program he’s involved with.
“It sounded fun,” he said, noting that he anticipated another five hours in the costume.
“Dude, I love Easton, bruh,” one passerby said. “I’m gonna move here.”
Allison Stein ‘27 contributed reporting.
