Sudbury's Garlic Festival

By Mary Stefura

This August, the Canadian Garlic Festival in Sudbury, Ontario, celebrated its 15th anniversary. What started as a potluck Garlic Gala dinner at the Ukrainian Seniors’ Centre has blossomed into a community festival attended by thousands annually.

Over the years, organizers and participants have sponsored cook-offs, the production of four garlic cookbooks, a borscht and other competitions, demonstrations of obzhynky (harvest) rituals, walking programs and the annual visit of Canada’s Garlic King, Ted Maczka. In 1994, the festival’s 78-foot-and-three-inch garlic braid was entered for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records and, again in 2001, when the braid measured 229.01 feet.

The festival provides a children’s program, sponsored by the TD Bank, a stage show featuring local talent and some out-of-town guest performers.  This year’s highlights also included cultural displays, garlic-braiding workshops and vendor booths.

Food is the central attraction, with garlic, of course, being a main ingredient. Sit-down dinners are served in St. Mary’s Church social hall while finger foods are available under the tents.  Elderly members of the community know they have made it through another year when they start peeling two bushels of garlic to flavour about 50 roast pans each of holubtsi and varenyky and nibblers from hrechanky to garlic chip cookies and ice cream with garlic sauce.

Part of the festival takes place at Hnatyshyn Park, a small parkette in the central downtown area.  The municipality blocks off four lanes of traffic to accommodate stage presentations. Festival support is provided through the Cultural Grant program of the City of Greater Sudbury, summer-student placement, local business sponsors, the Lion’s Club as well as a legion of dedicated volunteers.

Proceeds from the Original Canadian Garlic Festival have generously supported the Atlantika Millennium project, the Sudbury Community Foundation, the Barvinok-on-the Park Retirement home and programs of the Ukrainian community.

The festival has now become a Sudbury tourist draw and has been profiled in Our Canada Magazine, CAA Magazine and the Sudbury Star. 

For more information about the Canadian Garlic Festival, visit www.ukrseniors.org