March 30, 2012

Popular Italian Street Festival in Indianapolis to resume in 2013

Special to The Criterion

A committee of volunteers from Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish and the Italian Heritage Society of Indiana have dedicated themselves to resurrecting the annual Italian Street Festival in June 2013. This year’s festival was recently cancelled.

“We want to assure the public that this much-loved civic event has not seen its final days,” said Father Michael Magiera, administrator of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish, in a press release. “It will return in all its glory to its rightful place on the calendar in June 2013.”

In the meantime, the volunteer committee is planning a smaller, Italian-themed event for this August or October to coincide with Columbus Day celebrations.

Holy Rosary Parish reluctantly cancelled the 2012 Italian Street Festival after its longtime organizer, parishioner David Page, announced that he would no longer be able to coordinate the event. No one had been adequately prepared to succeed him in his position, leading Father Magiera to call for volunteers to save the event.

The Italian Street Festival has been held annually in early June at the corner of East and Stevens streets near downtown Indianapolis since 1983.

From the beginning, the simple parish festival quickly grew under Page’s leadership into an event that attracted tens of thousands of patrons from around central Indiana.

“The festival had grown so large, it had become, in its way, a small business enterprise that consumed much of David’s time throughout the year,” Father Magiera said. “No one individual—or even a group of individuals—was immediately ready to take over such a large undertaking. By the time our volunteer committee stepped forward, we deemed it imprudent to do a ‘rush job’ and have a festival this year that wouldn’t live up to our standards or the expectations of those people who come here year after year.”

The “mini-festival” being planned for later this year, possibly under the title “Taste of Italy,” will serve as a transitional event. The exact date for the 2013 festival will soon be determined. †

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