THUNDER BAY – Residents flocked to the Italian Cultural Centre on Sunday to join in on the fun at Festa Italiana.
This year's Festa marks the return to the in-person format of the event after a few years of relying on Takeout due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Matt Pascuzzo. public relations chair for the Italian Society of Port Arthur said that people couldn’t wait to get started and enjoy the Festa Italiana the way it was meant to be enjoyed..
“We had a lot of people who were here before it opened so that was a really good sign,” he said. “But as you can see, I think lots of people are excited that it's back in full force and it's not take-out like it was last year.”
With a strong start to Sunday’s festivities, Pascuzzo said that he’s confident that the turnout will return to pre-pandemic numbers.
“I was looking back at the numbers from previous years and we've had about 20,000 people over the course of the weekend in in the non-COVID years so I'm hoping we can get the same amount of people out this year,” he said.
“But it sounds like people are really excited to come back so I think there will be even more people. I talked to a lot of people today who said it's either their first time coming or their first time in a few years that they've been here, so really excited to see everybody back in back in action.”
The biggest draw to the Festa has always been the delicious food and everybody was excited to be back together again and enjoying it along with Italian Music.
“I could go on forever about just the amount of food that we have here, but obviously the entertainment as well, we have some local artists, some international artists as well,” said Pascuzzo.
“There's children's activities and of course the beer garden for some people who like to have a nice sip of beer when they're watching the music and eating their pasta.”
The Festa Italiana continues Monday until 11 p.m. and everybody is invited to attend and celebrate Italian culture. The event is free to attend, but proceeds from sales will go to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation.
