By Darlene Brace
It’s that time of year again to celebrate Italian culture at the annual Fredonia Italia Festival, organized by Festivals Fredonia. This year, the festival will take place at the Fredonia Beaver Club, located at 64 Prospect Street, on Saturday, June 20th, from 11am-6pm. People from the Fredonia community, as well as surrounding areas, always look forward to indulging in a variety of delicious Italian foods, wines, and live music throughout the day.
One thing Italians are known for is their love of food! They enjoy making it, eating it, and serving it to others. At this festival, there will be a variety of food vendors, many of which specialize in Italian cuisine. You will find Super Duper Catering, Mark’s Blasdell Pizza, Rural Ministry’s Spaghetti and Meatballs, Not Your Mother’s Kitchen and Coughlan’s Pub. Save room for dessert so you can indulge in delicious cannoli, CIAO’s Italian cookies, and gelato from Chai’s Chocolates. Yum, yum!
Local wine vendors will be present again this year. You can enjoy selections from Woodbury Winery & Vineyards, Sunset Sky Farm, Mazza Wines, Clarksburg Cider, Brad’s Blends, and Cooper’s Daughter. They will be offering a variety of wines, ranging from sweet to dry, to suit every taste preference.
In addition to the delicious Italian cuisine and wine, another highlight of this festival is the entertainment scheduled throughout the event. To kick off the festival’s entertainment, saxophonist David Golando and his band will perform a mix of cover songs and original jazz tunes from 11:30am-1pm. Then at 1:30pm, the Buffalo-based Italian dance band, The Formula, will take the stage and perform until 3:30pm, allowing you to immerse yourself in the rhythm of this cultural experience. To conclude the day’s live music, The Happy Days Band, with Gabriel and Mary Giuffre, will entertain the crowd with a variety of oldies from many generations and genres, ensuring that everyone enjoys their performance. This fun band is sure to get some people in the crowd up dancing.
In between the music, there will be several activities taking place including the Morra, which is a fast-paced Italian numbers competition. There will also be Italian singers in the Beaver Club banquet room as well as some raffles. Besides your typical basket raffles, there will be raffles for metal signs made by Gina of Echevarria Designs.
As in past years, this festival features a meatball contest where community members can participate by bringing at least six homemade meatballs with sauce in a non-returnable container to the Beaver Club at the beginning of the festival for judging. This year, the meatballs will be evaluated based on taste, use of traditional ingredients, sauce, and overall impression.
In addition, to the meatball contest, there is also a wine contest. Participants can enter by bringing a bottle of their delicious homemade wine to the Beaver Club pavilion. It needs to be in a non-returnable bottle or container. There will be judging for both contests that will take place at around 12:30pm, so make sure your entries are at the Beaver Club by 11:30am. Trophies will be awarded to the winners of each contest.
If you are interested in learning about Italian history, Max Walters, the curator of the Barker Museum, will be returning this year, and he will set up a historical display in the dining hall. This display will feature various Italian artifacts and provide information about Italian history and culture. Additionally, some members of the Festival Fredonia board will share pictures and information from their recent trips to Italy and Sicily, which may include some discussions about their experiences.
There will also be a special guest, author Suzanne Cope, who wrote “Women of War.” Her book tells the stories of Italian women who were involved in World War II efforts to defeat the Nazis, and she will be discussing this topic with the crowd. It promises to be an informative and entertaining afternoon.
The Italian festival is a wonderful event that gives you the opportunity to mingle with friends, family, and neighbors while immersing yourself in Italian culture, traditions, and history. You will enjoy delicious food, tasty wine, and amazing entertainment during Fredonia’s Italia Festival. For more information, visit festivalsfredonia.org.