‘She was our garlic queen': Nancy Stewart-Franczak, Garlic Fest cofounder and a culture pioneer, dies at 67

Nancy Stewart-Franczak, gregarious cultural titan of the Palm Beaches and the doyenne behind some of South Florida's most beloved food feasts — from the pungent South Florida Garlic Fest to the sprawling Delray Affair — has died.
Stewart-Franczak, 67, who struggled in recent years through three rounds of chemotherapy, died on April 28 due to complications from liver and colon cancer, confirmed her husband, John Franczak.
Her death was announced Monday by her longtime company, event producer Festival Management Group (FMG), along with a public celebration of life that will take place at 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 12, at Delray Beach Golf Club, 2200 Highland Ave.
'My incredible wife was incredibly organized with everything,' John Franczak told the Sun Sentinel via text message. 'She was just full of energy and grit and great ideas. I'm a little overwhelmed, but by God's grace we'll make it through.'
Friends and colleagues referred to Stewart-Franczak, the executive director of Festival Management Group for nearly 30 years, as a 'workhorse' and a 'force of nature' who presided over troves of community events, including the Wellington Bacon & Bourbon Fest and LagoonFest in West Palm Beach.
But the crown jewel of them all was the South Florida Garlic Fest, a stinky ode to the bulb whose national music headliners (Buddy Guy, Blues Traveler, Trombone Shorty, among others), helped morph Delray Beach in the late 1990s from a sleepy beach town into a destination.
'She was our garlic queen,' says Bern Ryan, FMG's chief financial officer. 'Without a doubt, she threw some of the biggest and best parties, and they were flawless. She had such an attention to detail. She'd give you a 40-page-long, minute-by-minute timeline detailing everything that was supposed to happen at any given festival. She never wanted to fail or disappoint.'
Born in Pennsylvania, Stewart-Franczak began her career as a computer programmer for IBM, then ran a graphic design studio on Atlantic Avenue creating ads and logos for restaurants like Dada and food-service companies like Cheney Bros. That evolved into event production when one vendor at California's Gilroy Garlic Festival suggested she program a South Florida version.
Ryan recalls the day in 1998 when he and Stewart-Franczak were in the room pitching what would become the then-named Delray Beach Garlic Fest — and a city official OK'ed the festival, but not before they 'laughed at it,' he says.
'They said to us, 'That's the stupidest idea I ever heard for a festival,'' Ryan recalls with a laugh. 'Couple of weeks later, Nancy drops off the check to pay for city services, and they just looked at her thunderstruck, like, 'Really? Are you serious?''
She was. About 8,000 festivalgoers passed through Garlic Fest's gates that first year — but Stewart-Franczak wasn't finished, expanding with other events outside the city.
'She believed in the power of events to make a positive difference in the lifeblood of a community,' wrote blogger Jeff Perlman, a former Delray Beach mayor and commissioner, in a blog post titled, 'A true friend.'
'Nancy was a wonderful person — hard working, sincere, funny, down to earth, loving and tough as they come. She took pride in Delray's progress.'
Even if she and Delray Beach officials didn't always agree. As Garlic Fest's attendance grew, the city of Delray Beach in 2016 voted to curtail several public events, forcing Stewart-Franczak to rebrand and move the bash into different cities. She took that exodus hard, recalls FMG associate director Jennifer Costello.
'If there's one person who turned an entire city into a destination, it was Nancy with Delray Beach,' Costello says. 'She revitalized the downtown way before the hotels and touristy stuff came.'
Leanne Morgan, a friend and contractor who's helped organize FMG events for 20 years, says Stewart-Franczak loved wine, travel and live music. At every festival, she would park her golf cart beside the stage apron, soaking in the sounds of bands at a volume Morgan calls 'Nancy-loud.'
'She wanted to be close enough so the music could rip her heart out of her chest,' Morgan says. 'You didn't bother her in the golf cart. After working so hard to program the events, that's how she relaxed.'
Such was Stewart-Franczak's tireless ethic that she worked until her final moments. On the day she died, she met with the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Costello says — and she persuaded the city to return South Florida Garlic Fest to Delray Beach after a nine-year absence.
'She had been low on energy that morning, but when the meeting finished, the lights came back on in her eyes,' Costello recalls, holding back a sob. 'Then she said to me, 'It's full-circle. We're back.' And I think that maybe, because she brought the festival back to Delray, she knew she was finally able to rest.'
In lieu of flowers, donations in Stewart-Franczak's memory can be made to the Boynton Beach nonprofit EJS Project, which empowers youth in communities of color. To donate, go to ejsproject.org.

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