Hundreds of garlic-lovers gathered in Portobello yesterday for the township's inaugural celebration of the vegetable.
Organisers of the weekly Portobello Village Farmers Market decided to stage the event this year to promote the vegetable, as well as raise money for the Dunedin volunteer coastguard service, event organiser Jan McLean said.
"We love garlic . . . like some people love tripe and some people love kidneys," she said.
"Everyone was banging and stinking and nobody cared."
Yesterday's festivities included raffles and a cook-off competition between three chefs, which was won by French Connection chef Michael Rozenberg with a brill dish.
An old tug-of-war rivalry between Port Chalmers and Portobello fishermen was also renewed, and won yesterday by the Port Chalmers team, she said.
It was not yet known how much money was raised by yesterday's event, but it was hoped the event would continue to grow.
