BUFFALO, N.Y. — Following a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Galbani Italian Heritage Festival is returning to the City of Buffalo this summer.
While the event is returning to the City of Buffalo, Galbani Italian Festival Board President Judy Porto-Fiorella says the annual festival will not take place at Niagara Square this year. Instead, the event will move back to its previous, long-time location on Hertel Avenue.
"This is the year to bring back the sights, the sounds, the food, the entertainment and the heritage, the event we have all grown to love through all the years, back to Hertel Avenue and Buffalo's little Italy," Porto-Fiorella said during press conference in April.
The three-day festival will kick-off on Friday, July 15 on Hertel Avenue from Delaware Avenue to Virgil Avenue. The event will go from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on both July 15 and July 16. On July 17 the event will go from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
According to Peter LoJacono, vice president of the Galbani Italian Festival Board, this year's event will feature a variety of cultural displays. One of these displays will include genealogy research. This will allow festival-goers to do research on their family's origins in Italy. Attendees will also be able to make oral recordings of their histories to pass on to the future generations.
The Italian Festival will also feature bocce ball demonstrations and games, a cooking demonstration, food contests, a Sicilian marionette show, face painting, as well as its ever popular grape stomping event.