This festival devoted to the stinking rose, began in 1979 in Gilroy, California. The town is now known as the "Garlic Capital of the World." This community annually draws upwards of 130,000 to its Gilroy Garlic Festival.

From the festival sprung the Garlic Festival Store and Gallery in downtown Gilroy. A big former department store space is now a gallery, displaying an enormous amount of garlic-theme items. Attractive gift baskets, candies, flavored vinegar and salad dressings, candles, a non-garlic but comprehensive bath-item boutique, interesting collection of whimsical, and artist-decorated antique furniture. Their most famous gifts are the "Garlic Festival in a Box," and the gold boxed "One Dozen Stinking Roses."

This is also the future site of the International Garlic Center Museum.