Italian festival set for this weekend
Organizers are expecting throngs of people to enjoy food and fellowship at the Uniontown Italian Heritage Festival this weekend. Activities will begin at noon Saturday on Main Street and wrap up at 8 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free and parking in all city lots and garages is free.
Main Street will be closed from the Fayette County Courthouse to Five Corners for both days of the festival.
Festival highlights include a car show, a dozen bands and entertainers, numerous food and gift vendors, an outdoor Italian Mass, fireworks, the Little Miss Italian Festival Pageant and a spaghetti-eating contest where people will see who can eat pounds of pasta and sauce the fastest.
The spaghetti-eating contest, sponsored by Pasta Lorenzo, will be held at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Storey Square and will have different categories for first-timers and experienced eaters, with competitors eating 2 and 4 pounds of pasta, respectively. One winner from each division will be awarded a cash prize.
On Sunday, Fayette County’s Best Meatball contest will be held at 2 p.m. in the Public Safety Building parking lot. Chef Joe Carei, owner of Pasta Lorenzo in South Union Township, and a panel of judges will select the best meatball based on flavor, texture and appearance.
To register for either contest call Pasta Lorenzo at 724-437-4440 and ask for Carei or Keith Wilson, or e-mail info@pastalorenzo.com. Competitors also can sign up at the Pasta Lorenzo booth during the Italian Festival, but pre-registration is recommended.
“We’ll have the best food. We’ll have the best entertainment,” said festival committee member Erica Miller. “It will be the most fun you’ll have in Uniontown all year.”
Mayor Ed Fike and Terry Cellurale, festival committee chairman, said what they’re looking forward to is the spirit of fellowship and camaraderie the festival brings to town.
“We’ve been able to share not only friendship and partnership, but fellowship,” Fike said.
People who attend the festival seem like one big, happy family, he said.
“We’ll call it an extended family,” Fike said.
“I’m looking forward to all that beauty and energy on Main Street once a year when everyone is hugging, dancing, singing, eating and drinking,” Cellurale said. “We want to see all those friends and families coming together and having a good time.”
City Treasurer Joseph N. Giachetti, who worked with Fike and Cellurale to revive the festival last year after the group that used to sponsor the event ended its involvement, promised a fun-filled festival.
“It’s going to be a super weekend,” Giachetti said.
Last year, the committee had just six weeks to organize the event. Planning for this year’s festival started soon after last year’s festival ended. The 20-member committee meets every Monday night in City Hall.
The result was a wider variety of entertainment and more twice as many vendors as last year.
“You’re going to be impressed. We excited to bring this to the people of Fayette County and everybody that comes. We can’t wait for everybody to see what we’ve done,” Cellurale said, adding that “90-plus” vendors will appear this weekend.
Adding more entertainment and vendors was a goal set after last year’s festival.
Using some revenue from the event for scholarships was a longer-range goal that Fike, Cellurale and Giachetti set when they decided to revive the festival last year.
“It’s like raising a child. We have to grow it the right way,” Cellurale said.
He said the committee makes money from sponsors, fundraisers and from selling beer, wine, soda and water during the festival.
If enough profit remains after this year’s entertainers and other expenses are paid, the money could be used for scholarships next year, he said, adding that providing scholarships in three to five years was the goal.
“We estimated three to five years, so next year should be first,” Cellurale said. “We haven’t decided yet. We’ll know after the festival. It’s twice as big this year, so we have more expenses.”
“That’s our plan,” Fike said. “If we can make enough money we can put something together to give out scholarships.”
From last year’s festival, $2,500 will be donated to the city for improvements to Bailey Park, Cellurale said. Fike will announce the donation at the opening ceremony in Storey Square at noon Saturday.
The nonprofit Community Foundation of Fayette County, which handles the financial accounts for the festival, receives a share of the revenue as payment for its services.
Money isn’t needed to enjoy the entertainment at the festival.
The swing band Dr. Zoot will perform on the Storey Square stage at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Egidio Faiella will stroll through the audience playing Italian and Italian-American music on his mandolin at 2 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
The band Oro Puro will play Italian-American music at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday.
Saturday-only entertainment includes a spaghetti-eating contest begins at 4:30 p.m., Mary Ferro teaching tarantella dancing at 5 p.m. and Frankie Gallo performing at 5:30.
We Three will take the stage at 8 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday.
A fireworks display at 10 p.m. Saturday will precede performances from the band Stereo Type, Chris Higbee and a stand-up comedy act by WDVE radio personality Jimmy Krenn.
Higbee also will perform with Pittsburgh rocker Donnie Iris before Iris plays solo.
WTAE-TV personalities will attend both days of the festival.
At 10 a.m. Sunday, the Rev. Michael W. Matusak of St. Therese Roman Catholic Church in Uniontown will celebrate an outdoor mass in Storey Square.
Paul Calise and John Bigante will perform at 11 a.m. Sunday followed by the Little Miss Italian Festival Pageant at noon.
Howard Mincone, a juggler, comedian and mine, and other roving entertainers will play both days of the festival.
Musician Frank Capri will perform on Main Street near Morgantown Street also on both days.