Festitalia: ‘We will cover Hamilton with Italy’
City’s Italian celebration is marking its 50-year anniversary this year with a cultural expo and a street festival in June and its traditional events in September.
For 50 years in September, Festitalia has brought Italy to Hamilton with dinners, dances, art shows, and grape stomps.
This year, the golden anniversary celebration is going to the next level, with a downtown street festival and a cultural showcase on the Mountain in June. These events are happening in addition to the traditional September events, which have always been timed to the season of the harvest, a strong tradition in Italy.
June was declared Italian Heritage Month by the federal government in 2019.
So in honour of that, the Hamilton Italian Centre (HIC) at 420 Crerar Dr. will play host to the Festitalia 50th Anniversary Expo on June 21 and 22.
It will include food booths by restaurants and regional clubs, cooking demonstrations, chef talks, wine tastings, an espresso booth, an art show, local musicians, films, Italian lessons, soccer games, soccer clinics, bocce games and lessons, and an exotic car rally.
The expo’s pinnacle event is Saturday with an evening with chef David Rocco. In a 250-person tent at the rear of the centre, Rocco will talk about his books, his world travels, and his love of Italian food. Sunday morning will include a mass in the tent.
The HIC is owned by the Sons and Daughters of Italy, one of Hamilton’s nine regional clubs, and it opened in the former Guido de Brès Christian High School early last year.
The weekend expo, which will be emceed by Hamilton native Rick Campanelli, will also include talks and performances by members of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, a Thursday dance at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, along with a speaker series talking about architecture, Hamilton’s Italian families, authors, history and a panel of past Festitalia presidents.
Also on June 21 and 22, the Hamilton Italian Heritage Festival will happen along James Street North between Murray Street and Strachan Street. It will feature food vendors, a beer tent, market vendors, a carnival and a performance stage.
“We are working with the Racalumutese Club who is putting on the street festival,” says Mark Farrugia, the past chair of Festitalia. “It’s the inaugural year and will be taking place every year going forward. Festitalia is kind of incubating this year and will continue to support it going forward. It is the only Italian street festival for the city.”
A shuttle will run between the two sites.
Hamilton has a rich history of Italian settlement. Just over 16 per cent of Hamiltonians are of Italian descent, which makes it one of the largest Italian migration communities in the country.
It’s appropriate to have the twin events, one in the heart of Hamilton’s Little Italy and the other on the Mountain, where many Italian families migrated in the decades after World War II, says Lia Dean, Festitalia’s vice chair.
“We will cover Hamilton with Italy.”
