Italian festival will take place after all
A two-day festival to celebrate Italian heritage will take place in Uniontown this summer. A committee of city officials and local business owners are holding the Uniontown Italian Heritage Festival on Main Street in downtown on Aug. 29 and 30. Admission will be free. “It’s going to be unbelievable,” said committee chairman Terry Cellurale. “It’s going to be special. People are going to love it. I can’t wait.”
It is not the Fayette Italian Heritage Festival, which the Sons of Italy Giuseppe Mazzini Lodge 231 in Uniontown and other Sons lodges in the county used to run. The Sons lodges decided not to sponsor a festival this year due to a dispute with the Sons state lodge.
“We just didn’t want to let it go. The city deserves to have these two days,” Cellurale said.
All the Sons of Italy lodges in the county have been offered free vendor booths in the Uniontown Italian Heritage Festival, according to a news release from the committee.
Main Street will be closed to traffic from Gallatin Avenue to Five Corners for the festival, which will feature Italian music, food, crafts, a car show and a fireworks display.
There is a possibility that the fireworks will be set off from the top of the city’s parking garage on Penn Street, Mayor Ed Fike said.
“I’m excited about it,” Fike said. “I think this is one of the most positive things to come to Uniontown in several years.”
The festival runs from 3:30 to 11 p.m. Aug. 29 and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 30. Parking in both city garages and all city lots will be free for the event.
Music and entertainment will be presented in Storey Square.
The Cavaliers, who perform Italian and American music, Italian soloist Stefano and the headliner, We Three, will play Saturday.
The fireworks begin at 10 p.m. after We Three performs.
Sunday will begin with an Italian Mass in Storey Square at 8 a.m.
Paul Calise, who plays the accordion, and singer John Bigante will perform traditional Italian music after the service. Bigante will sing songs he learned growing up in Abbruzzo, Italy.
A Little Miss Italy pageant begins at 11:30 a.m.
The band Dr. Zoot will play Sunday afternoon before Jimmy Sapienza’s Five Guys Names Moe takes the stage in the evening.
Food and craft vendors and vehicles entered in the car show will set up on Main Street.
“I’ve already got 65 vendors,” Cellurale said Thursday.
The committee is offering a limited number of stage sponsorships for $1,000 to cover the cost of the event. Vendors wishing to participate should also call Cellurale. They will be charged a fee.
Fike said any money left over after expenses are paid and some money is set aside for next year’s festival would be given to the city. The Community Foundation of Fayette County is handling the bank account for the festival.