THUNDER BAY — È tornato! Festa Italiana is back for its 33rd year.
Organizers held a media kickoff at the Italian Cultural Centre on Thursday, in advance of this long weekend's festivities, which run on Sunday and Monday from noon to 11 p.m. on both days.
While the layout this year will be different, festival attendees can expect lots of live music and entertainment, along with contests and, of course, an overabundance of food available from its main food vendors; Italian Society of Port Arthur, Gran Sasso Club and Ladies of the Italian Society of the Port Arthur.
Algoma Street will be open to traffic this year, and construction fencing for the Finlandia creates a property barrier, but the beer gardens, stage and all other activities that are planned will be using most of the large parking lot that's available to them.
Matt Pascuzzo, the public relations chair for the Italian Society of Port Arthur Executive Board, is expecting thousands for Festa.
"Notwithstanding the COVID years prior to COVID, we had about 20,000 people come through during the weekend," he said. "It's actually one of the most well-attended cultural festivals in Thunder Bay. So we're looking forward to welcoming, hopefully, that same number of people back again this year."
There's an immense amount of prep work that goes into getting ready for this festival, especially when it comes to the food portion. Pascuzzo said he doesn't envy those in the kitchen as they've been working hard for the past few weeks getting the Elephant Ears ready, along with many meatballs and all the other treats that go along with the festa. He added that the volunteer board has been working diligently for the past seven months preparing the event.
There will be two eating contests, a watermelon contest for kids on Sunday at 2 p.m., then all eyes will turn to the adults who will be faced with a pasta eating contest at 2:15 pm.
This year again, the event is free, but proceeds from sales will go to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation.
Two people will win a prize of a trip to Italy.
