SOGGY CONDITIONS couldn’t keep a large crowd from descending on downtown Wakefield on Saturday. (Mark Sardella Photo)
Published in the August 20, 2018 edition.
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD – The soggy conditions notwithstanding, the ninth annual Festival Italia drew lots of people to downtown Wakefield starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday to enjoy good food, musical entertainment and to check out the offerings of dozens of local businesses and organizations at tables and tents lining both sides of Main and Albion streets.
The timing of the weather gods could not have been worse. Organizers were completing set-up of the La Piazza Wine and Beer Garden in front of The Savings Bank just before 2 p.m. when the skies opened up and a torrential downpour sent people running for cover as waves of water gushed down the sides of Main Street.
But by about 2:30 p.m., the rain had all but stopped and it held off for a good two-hours or so as crowds flowed back into the streets, some wielding umbrellas against the occasional stray sprinkle.
“For a rainy day, it’s a great turnout,” said Paul DiNocco, president of the Wakefield Community Partnership, which organized the event. DiNocco observed that since the group formerly known as the Event Planning Committee began the annual August event nine years ago, this was the first year that the weather has been anything but perfect for Festival Italia.
“For eight years we had great weather,” he said. “It is what it is.”
Local restaurants served up delicious food ranging from Italian sausages and steak kebabs from Tonno to ribs from Pitstop BBQ to sushi from Sakura Organic. Local favorites House Calls Catering were offering meatball sliders that were hard to resist.
A perennial Festival Italia favorite is the fundraising dunk tank. This year, there were two tanks where attendees were invited to dunk their favorite local celebrities for a modest donation to either the Wakefield Independence Day Committee (WIDC) or the West Side Social Club (WSSC) to help support the 2019 July Fourth Parade, children’s events and fireworks.
Among the local luminaries volunteering to get dunked for a cause were State Rep. Paul Brodeur, Town Councilors Julie Smith-Galvin and Tony Longo, Brian Fox from the WIDC, School Committee members Chris Callanan and Colleen Guida, Jeff Crump from Boy Scout Troop 701, Ian Power, Bill Bloom and David Hatfield from the WSSC, Justin Jones from Prudential Insurance, Vikki Johnson from the Wakefield Rotary Club, Rich Greif from the Wakefield Human Rights Commission and State Rep. candidate Matthew Crescenzo.
Businesses, organizations and town departments featured representatives eager to greet visitors at tables and booths along Main and Albion Streets. They included the Wakefield Italian American Club, the Warrior Club, Florence’s Fashions, the Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield Community Access Television, Hart’s Hardware, the Dance Studio of Wakefield, the West Side Social Club, The Savings Bank, Wakefield Main Streets, the Wakefield Department of Public Works, The Wakefield Co-operative Bank, the Wakefield School Department, Wakefield Girls’ Volleyball, Premier Homes, Golden Rule Lodge and many, many more.
On hand to provide musical entertainment were Betty’s Bounce, the North Ave. Band, Pistol Pete and the Smoking Guns, the Memory Laners, Mack Stevens, Alyssa Addario, MJ Trio, Onset Music and others.
DiNocco said that while organizers considered postponing to the rain date, the decision was made to stay with the original date due to a variety of factors, including availability of vendors and staffing from the town.
DiNocco said that all the bands, vendors and organizations were extremely cooperative given the less than ideal weather conditions.
“Everybody is making the best of it,” he said. “We can’t control the weather.”
