The food, music and, most importantly, the culture of Italy will be on display at Cook Park on October 10 where the Sons of Italy Roma Intangible Lodge will host their first ever festival to raise awareness of the Italian American population in the Village of Colonie
Biagio Isgro, the event coordinator for the Sons of Italy, said the festival is really meant to me a family fun day that will have attractions for kids as well as adults.
We’re going to have a Bouncy Bounce and we’ll have a Kid’s Zone where kids will be taught simple stuff like colors, letter and numbers with a teacher teaching them in Italian,` said Isgro. `We’ll also have a face painter there for the day.`
And for the rest of the family there will be a plethora of Italian Culture on display with Italian relics, traditional Italian clothing and costumes, information on Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi and a wide variety of different Italian foods.
`We’ll have pasta and meat balls and sausage subs,` said Isgro of the food and added that there will also fried dough, cotton candy and hopefully beer and wine. `We’ve applied for a temporary beer and wine license. If we get it, there will be Italian wines and there will definitely be beer available.`
There will also be a DJ playing traditional Italian music, which Isgro said he hopes will expand into performances featuring customary Italian dancing.
The idea to hold this first ever Italian festival is fueled by the move of several Italian Americans from the city of Albany out into the suburbs of Latham, Loudonville and Colonie, according to Isgro. It is what prompted the move of the Sons of Italy headquarters from Albany into the village.
`What’s happened there has been less and less cultural emphasis on inner cities,` he said. `They don’t really have any groups of any type of activities that promote the heritage of Italian culture.`
He recalled the time of when there was a section of Albany, near Madison Avenue and Grand Street that was considered the Little Italy section, which originated from St. Anthony’s Church that has since closed down, according to Isgro.
`That church has closed down and all those people were placed in different areas because of the [Crossgates] mall or have moved into the suburbs,` said Isgro. `They now have bigger lawns and an area to provide a better living for their families.`
The effect that Italian Americans have had on American culture is a topic Isgro hopes is brought out through educating people on Garabaldi, the introduction of Palladian windows as well as focus on Italian inventors who have helped America along the way.
`We bring a lot of that culture and tradition people didn’t know about,` he said of the Songs od Italy. `We try to incorporate that in the sense of the impact Italian Americans have had on this country.`
A lot of this is fueled by third and fourth generation families are looking into their ancestry and are now turning to the organization for information that was not available to them when they were younger.
`We’re trying to educate them on what their ethnic routes are,` said Isgro.
And that is the purpose of this event, to try and draw more people into their organization and make them aware that there is a place where they can learn more about their family’s history. Well, that and they just want people to come and have a good time.
`We want people to come and enjoy themselves and hopefully they enjoy what wqe do this year,` he said, `because next year will be a bigger and better festival.`
Admission to the festival and parking are free. The event will begin at 10 am and will end around 7 p.m. or dusk.“
