For four days in mid-August, Massasoit Road will be home to a little piece of Italy on this side of the Atlantic as the Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Loreto Parish hosts its annual Italian Festival, celebrating the passing down of culture through generations.
“Every time you turn around, there’s going to be something going on — food or music or dancing,” festival chair Tom Annunziata said. “We like to extend the invitation to everybody. Everybody’s Italian at the festival.”
The Italian Festival will run from Aug. 14 to 17, with gates open from 5 to 10 p.m. Aug. 14 and 15, noon to 10 p.m. Aug. 16 and noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 17.
Admission is $2, and food stands will accept cash, while the beer and wine counter accepts tickets purchased at the parish’s ticket booth. Children can gain all-day admission to the bouncy house area for $10. There will be an ATM on site.
Live music throughout the festival will include the Ambrosiani Italian Band, R&B cover group Decades by Dezyne, Boom Box, XS Band and the Jim Geany Band, and when no one is onstage, a playlist of Italian American classics will be on the speakers.
‘This is what we do’
Organizer Michelina Portas said for decades, the festival has been a way for Italian Americans in Central Massachusetts to pass down traditional food, dances and practices.
“It’s a lot of Italian families that have been here a few generations and don’t want to let go of their culture, especially as the generations keep getting more and more,” Portas said. “It’s definitely geared more toward the old school, teaching the kids that this is what we cook, this is what we do.”
Portas recalled festivalgoers leaping up to dance the tarantella when she was younger, and this year, the Dance Dazzlers troupe will return to perform it and a number of other traditional Italian dances on the afternoon of Aug. 16.
Though Italian American culture has evolved into a unique mix all its own over the decades, Annunziata said when he meets more recent immigrants from Italy at the festival, they still feel at home — for example, one couple he met at last year’s festival complimented the cooking.
“They loved it,” Annunziata said. “The food was on point for them, at least that what they told me, so I’m going to take them at their word.”
‘A lot to offer for any culture’
The festival gates are open to everyone, and Portas usually sees a variety of cultures and backgrounds represented in the crowd.
This year, that variety will extend to the food vendors as well. Alongside the wide range of Italian cuisine, Sim’s Kitchen will be serving West African dishes.
“You definitely don’t have to be Italian to enjoy,” Portas said. “There’s a lot to offer for any culture, and I feel like our foods have also become very mainstream to American culture anyway.”
Those foods will include sausage, pepper and onion sandwiches, fried dough and cookies made by parishioners at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Loreto, plus arancini and fried ravioli from Bird’s Nest, calamari and grinders from Pepe’s, pasta from the Boulevard Diner, a cannoli truck and much more.
Memories of the old, along with the new
Though Annunziata is in his first year as festival chair, he, like all the festival’s organizers, has been attending for as long as he can remember, since it took place at the since-demolished, historically Italian Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Mulberry Street.
“We lost out when Mount Carmel was taken down,” Portas said. “That was a place of connection for the Italian community, and a lot of connections have been severed because of it, but Loreto is trying to carry the torch for all the parishes.”
The Mount Carmel grounds had the space to host a full carnival, as well as a greased-pole climbing contest, which Annunziata hopes can come to the smaller Loreto space in the future.
“Going to the festival at Mount Carmel and getting a Saturday all-day pass to ride the rides was the highlight of the weekend — the rides on Friday and Saturday, and then on Sunday morning we’d go to Mass and watch the greased-pole competition,” Annunziata said.
Under the tent at Loreto this year, there will be some new and different attractions along with the classics. Italian-American boxer Danny Docimo, a Grafton Hill native, will be talking boxing and showing the basics to the children, and the parish will run a raffle with a prize you can wear.
“I have a sneaker problem, and that’s a nice way of saying I have a sneaker addiction, and I have a guy in Boston who’s doing custom shoes for the festival,” Annunziata said. “We’re going to raffle off a gift card so someone can buy whatever sneakers they want and then have the artist from Boston, London Customs, do custom artwork.”
Proceeds from the raffle, the parish food booths, and the $2 admission will go toward the church, and Annunziata said much of that money will be used to fill the church’s food pantry, which serves dozens of families.
“Thankfully, the church is there to serve the folks in that community, but the community is much bigger than the immediately surrounding houses, and we’d like to be able to reach people that can’t make it to us if we can make it to them,” Annunziata said.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Loreto Parish Italian Festival
When: 5 to 10 p.m. Aug. 14 and 15, noon to 10 p.m. Aug. 16, and noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 17
Where: Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Loreto Church, 30 Massasoit Road. Worcester
How much: $2. mtcarmelfestival.org.
Dining and Cooking