San Fernando Planning Fiestas

City officials here are planning a menudo festival they hope will one day rival the famed Gilroy Garlic Festival.

The festival, scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 21, will feature the mayor’s menudo cook-off in which Mayor Jose Hernandez and four other judges will pick a winner. The first-place contestant will get $250, second will get $100 and the third-place finisher will get a gift basket.

“We want to make the menudo festival as well-known and popular as the garlic festival,” Hernandez said. “It will be an annual event with people coming from all over.”

The city will also sponsor a family fiesta this Sunday.

Both events, sponsored by the city’s Cultural Arts Commission and Downtown Assn., will feature food booths, arts and crafts, music and children’s activities along two blocks in the heart of the city.

Entry forms and a list of rules for the menudo cook-off are available at City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce. Deadline for entries is Monday.

Both fiestas, to be held along Maclay Street between San Fernando Road and Pico Street, are free and open from noon to 6 p.m.

For additional information, call (818) 898-1205.