Friday, August 21, 2015
By BRANDON KLEIN
bklein@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
The families, the food and the music are what has kept Brier Hill Italian Fest continuing for more than two decades.
The “longest continuously running Italian Fest” in Youngstown kicked off its 24th year at Victoria and Calvin streets Thursday evening. Festival attendants came out to enjoy the games, food and table vendors and live Italian music. The fest will run through Sunday.
“We’ve been coming for years,” said Barbara Boninsegna of the West Side.
Though she enjoys the food and music, the festival also brings back longtime friends and family.
“Last year I saw people I didn’t see for years,” she said.
Nearly everybody knows one another at the festival, said Holly Modarelli, who was selling Brier Hill Fest
T-shirts near ITAM Memorial Post 12, which is receiving the festival proceeds.
“It’s just like a family reunion,” she said.
Adjacent to her table was the DePietro family, who was selling baked goods, crafts and engraved glasses, and has done so the past four years. But the family has attended the festival every year since its inception, said Valerie DePietro of Austintown, who was born and raised in Brier Hill.
“I loved it,” she said.
Dominic Modarelli, festival chairman, said the event has achieved much for his late father, Dominic “Dee Dee” Modarelli, who founded the festival. His father died in 2009.
“This was his dream to bring back the spirit of the neighborhood,” he said.
The festival’s opening ceremony is at 7 p.m. today and will honor the late Tony Naples as man of the year.
Naples, who was born in Brier Hill and never left, attended every day of the festival and always was there for the closing music with his cousin’s band, Dominic Tocco and Brotherhood, according to Vindicator files. Naples died in October 2014.
The festival will run from 4 p.m. to midnight today and noon to midnight Saturday and Sunday. Special activities include a game of morra Friday, a hot pepper contest Saturday and a wine-tasting contest Sunday.
About 18,000 to 25,000 people attended the festival last year, Modarelli said, adding that he expects this year’s attendance to be at those levels or better.
“It’s going to be a hell of a festival,” he said.