Greater Youngstown Italian Fest SAME AS IT EVER WAS

Greater Youngstown Italian Fest

SAME AS IT EVER WAS

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

When it comes to the Greater Youngstown Italian Fest, the motto might be “Don’t mess with success.”

The annual street festival already is the biggest by far in the city, and it keeps growing. But instead of striving for newer and glitzier every year, it aims to keep things exactly the same.

That’s how you create a tradition.

“We stay as close as we can to what works for us,” said John Rossetti, festival chairman. “We have two main stages of entertainment, both covered from the sun, heat or rain. But the main thing is that our festival is growing larger every year. In our 29th year, we are six city blocks large.”

The festival sprawls over West Federal Street between Phelps and Walnut, and on perpendicular streets between Commerce and Boardman streets.

Despite the growth, the festival atmosphere and entertainment remains unchanged. As a result, the GYIF has become a weekend that is carved in stone on the social calendar of Valley residents and those who have moved away.

“We have families coming from Arizona to have their annual reunion at the festival,” said Rossetti.

Total attendance for the three-day event (Friday through Sunday) routinely tops 40,000. Peak times are between 7 and 10 p.m. each night, with the younger crowd stopping at the fest before hitting the downtown clubs.

Those numbers put the Youngstown event in the top 15 Italian festivals in the country, said Rossetti.

The GYIF serves a tourism function for the city, luring people from outside the area and reacquainting suburbanites with downtown.

“Our festival is marketed through the Mahoning Convention and Visitors Bureau, and we place billboards in Sharon, Canton and Pittsburgh,” said Rossetti.

Just as important, the festival helps erase some local folks’ impression of Youngstown’s resurgent downtown. “People come up to me every year and say, ‘I haven’t been downtown since 1982,’” said Rossetti.

As always, the GYIF will feature nearly nonstop entertainment in its two mega-tents. Headliner this year is Italian-born tenor Franco Corso. He will sing a 75-minute set at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the main tent.

After 9 p.m., the festival takes a break from Italian music and becomes a party with pop-rock bands Redline (Friday), Bustin’ Loose (Saturday) and The House Band (Sunday) in the beer tent.

Another highlight is the polka Mass at 4 p.m. Saturday in the main tent. Jack Vasko orchestra will provide the music at this unusual Mass that routinely draws about 1,500 people.

Each year, the festival gives out nine $1,000 college scholarships, eight of which go to Youngstown State University students. The YSU students are: Rachel Davis, Mario DiTullo, Karelin Fiorina Eleo, Roseanna Eliser, Ryan Emborsky, Shannon McBride, Sean Pregi and Joel Zaluski.

The fest also makes donations to several charities, including the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the downtown YMCA, First Night Youngstown, Second Harvest Food Bank and the Rich Center for Autism.

The Man and Woman of the Year awards, which honor local residents of Italian heritage, will go to Dante Zambrini and Flora Dirienzo Schneider.

Zambrini was superintendent of Canfield schools until retiring in 2012. The Youngstown native and Ursuline High graduate is now vice president of Eastern Gateway Community College.

Dirienzo Schneider, an East High graduate, taught in Youngstown schools and was a principal in Jackson-Milton schools for 14 years. She is on the board of the Italian Heritage Foundation of Youngstown.