Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's one of the most highly-anticipated cultural festivals in Western New York every summer, and festivities officially kick off Friday morning.
"No matter who you are, come down. You're gonna be part of an Italian family."
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The 2023 Galbani Italian Heritage Festival is underway, and will run through the weekend until Sunday at 7 p.m. ET along Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo between Delaware Avenue and Virgil Avenue. It is the second year back in North Buffalo after spending time in Niagara Square and along Buffalo's Outer Harbor.
"We're back to our home roots here, and we love just being here and being in the North Buffalo community," said President of the Italian Heritage Festival, Judy Porto-Fiorella during an appearance on WBEN.
"It's the home feel of a street festival. Remember, it started in 1976 on Connecticut Street as a street festival. And yes, we moved it to try a couple of different things but it needs to be on the street. It needs to be in a community, and just having the community involvement is the best for the festival."
The Italian Festival means the world to Porto-Fiorella, as she has deep family ties to the event dating back to Day 1. Her father brought the festival to Connecticut Street, later brought the weekend event to Hertel Avenue 13 years later. Porto-Fiorella, herself, has served on the festival board for the last 15-plus years, and served as President for the past two years.
"It's amazing to me. As a kid, I started with my dad, and I just now am keeping our heritage going, keeping us alive, and making everybody Italian for three days," Porto-Fiorella said with Brian Mazurowski and Susan Rose. "As I've said before, this is a huge Italian table, and everybody's bringing their stuff to the table. You've got your friends, your family, your music, and you've just become one big family."
While Buffalo's Italian Festival is a celebration of Italian heritage every single year, it is also very well-known for its wide variety of authentic, and new age Italian cuisine certain to please anybody's taste palate.
"We have pasta and peas coming this year, of course are authentic Italian sausage is out here. Dessert-wise, we have zeppoles, we have the cannolis, we have sfinge, we have stuffed pepper rolls here. Just a little bit of everything," Porto-Fiorella said. "We have some new vendors that came in with what might not be a traditional Italian, but they made them Italian. We have a chicken marsala sandwich, we have a waffle that is stuffed with sausage, peppers and onion - it's going to be a marinara also with the waffle. It's something a little creative and different. It might not be strictly traditional, but they made it work to be the Italian part of it."
And it isn't a party without the ever popular range of delectables available for festivalgoers this year.
There's actually several cannolis. We have Angelo's Pastries, we have Muscarella's, we have Gino's Bakery. So many different people out here to give you a different spin on each cannoli. Some might have chocolate-covered cannolis, some are having the traditional ricotta cannolis and cheese. Each one might bring a little bit of a difference, but they're out there to try," Porto-Fiorella said. "I always say, if you can't eat it here, take it home and try it later, because it's just as good as if you ate it right here on the street."
In addition to celebrating Buffalo's rich Italian heritage and enjoying some great food, there are a number of scheduled events for people of all ages to enjoy.
"One of our highlights Saturday night is the Atlantic City Boys with the Frankie Valli tribute band, we have Franco Corso coming for that. Chef Marco's doing several food demonstrations at the Galbani Cheese [Stage], and the wine people are doing all their wine demos with all different Italian wines from different regions. It's really just going to be a different feel this year, because we've incorporated so much more," Porto-Fiorella explained.
The annual Italian Festival is also family friendly with a number of different events available for the kids throughout each day.
"We have grape stomping, we have a puppet show, we have face painting. We this year now have a 15-foot Pinocchio that you could come and take pictures with. We have an entertainment stage that is full with entertainment starting from 11 o'clock today going right through till Sunday," Porto-Fiorella said. "We have an Italian Mass on Sunday morning at Holy Spirit church. We have the Galbani Cooking Stage that has tons of cooking demos with 'Chef Marco' [Mark Sciortino], and then they have wine demos. There's a little bit of everything for everybody."
Friday evening will feature the festival's opening ceremonies starting at 6 p.m. ET, when the St. Anthony of Padua statue will be walked down the center of the festival to the main stage.