Italian Heritage Festival returns to Uniontown
Weekend event features food, fellowship, fun
This weekend, Uniontown’s Main Street will be filled with the sights, sounds and tastes of Italy.
The Italian Heritage Festival will run from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.
This year’s event is the fourth since it was revived by original organizers, the Uniontown lodge of Sons and Daughters of Italy in America.
Jim Santilli, who’s chairing the festival, said the festival reliably brings the community together.
“People come in, family members come in from out of state, out of area, and they enjoy it,” he said. “They look forward to it every year. So hopefully, the weather will be nice, and we can get another one under our belts.”
Nearly 30 vendors will be on hand for the festival, including more than a dozen food booths.
The Giuseppe Mazzini Lodge will sell its beloved Giuseppe Sandwich, made with buttered Texas toast, a beef patty with sweet peppers and tomato sauce with melted provolone cheese.
“It’s an amazing sandwich,” said Ronald Sheba, one of the festival organizers. They also sell gnocchi with homemade sauce, as well as meatball sandwiches.
Other dishes will include DiMarco’s doing a tuna salad with cannellini beans, while Rizz’s is making sausage and Italian beef. There will also be a wide range of other Italian foods, from noodles to biscotti.
“Whatever you want, you can find it,” Santilli said.
The entertainment lineup includes multiple performances from tenor Moreno Fruzetti, a native of Pisa whose repertoire ranges from opera to pop, and local singer Christian Sesek, who covers standards from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Elvis Presley.
Accordionist Paul Calise will have a Saturday set in addition to strolling the grounds. Other musicians throughout the festival include Fret Buzz and a two-hour set from Sammy Bill Orchestra.
“They’re doing an hour of Italian music, and they’re mixing in an hour of patriotic music to coincide with the America250 celebration,” Santilli said.
Also delighting crowds throughout the festival will be juggler and magician Howard Mincone.
Children at the festival will be able to show off their putting skills at a miniature golf course, which in keeping with the 250th theme, will be painted red, white and blue. While the date and time have not been set, Fayette Special Olympians will also hold a demonstration of how to play bocce.
Face-painting and hair tinsel booths will also be set up.
“It’s a family event that anybody can attend,” Santilli said.
Sunday morning at 11, the festival will hold its traditional outdoor Mass at Storey Square. In case of rain, it will move to the State Theater.
In a first for the festival, the Mass will be conducted in Italian by the Rev. Anthony Klimko of St. Therese in Uniontown.
“Our pastor actually did his seminary work in Italy,” Sheba said.
The Italian Mass also commemorates the 100th anniversary of St. Therese, a church that drew the influx of Italian immigrants coming to the city.
It will be preceded by a rosary at 10:30 a.m. After the Mass, a Eucharistic procession will follow back to St. Therese.
The lodge started the festival in 1980 as a fundraiser. Organizers took some inspiration from a similar festival in Clarksburg, W.Va, then put their own spin on it.
“It was all red and white all the way down Main Street, a three-block area of Main, and people galore,” said Santilli. “It was just unreal. We never expected that it would take off.”
With young children to help raise, Santilli passed the festival off in 2000. Several groups put on the festival sporadically at different locations in the county, but “it wasn’t the same,” Santilli said.
After being approached by Uniontown Mayor Bill Gerke, the group brought it back in 2023.
Santilli’s children are now grown, so he had time to step back in as chair.
Santilli sees the festival as a way to bring the community together.
“Everybody says Uniontown and Fayette County is dying, but if us and other people keep things going like this — like the Juneteenth celebration and what they’re doing for the Marshall Park area and things like that — it’s going to work. This city is going to come back sooner or later.”
The full schedule can be found at the Facebook page for the Order of Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, Uniontown Lodge.