SCRANTON — It started with a couple of fibs.
Fifty years later, La Festa Italiana is a cultural powerhouse that brings huge crowds to Scranton’s Courthouse Square. On Sept. 4-7 La Festa will bring food, music, a race, cultural displays and a cannoli-eating contest. Steamtown National Historic Site’s Railfest will also draw crowds the same weekend and a free shuttle will connect the events.
La Festa Italiana is Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-7, at Courthouse Square in downtown Scranton. Hours are Sept. 4, 4 p.m.-10 p.m.; Sept. 5 and 6, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; and Sept. 7, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thousands of people walk around Courthouse Square at La Festa Italiana in Scranton in 2025. (FILE PHOTO)
The Scranton Times covered the first La Festa with a photo package on Monday, Oct. 11, 1976. (COURTESY OF NEWSPAPERS.COM)
A porketta sandwich is assembled by a UNICO Scranton worker at La Festa Italiana in Scranton on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Pizza by Pappas owner Vito Sparacio shakes powdered sugar onto a cannoli during La Festa Italiana on Courthouse Square in Scranton Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Newspaper coverage of La Festa in 1980. (COURTESY OF NEWSPAPERS.COM)
A 1978 Scranton Times-Tribune article promotes the third year of La Festa Italiana. A photograph of founder Bob Pettinato is in the center. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A painting of La Festa Italiana in the 1970s was painted by Austin Burke and hangs on the wall of festival founder Bob Pettinato in his office at PACE Construction Managers in Scranton Wednesday, August 26, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A photograph and a newspaper clipping of La Festa Italiana’s past are put on the desk of festival founder Bob Pettinato in his office at PACE Construction Managers in Scranton Wednesday, August 26, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Founder of La Festa Italiana Bob Pettinato sorts through memorabilia of the early years of La Festa Italiana in his office at PACE Construction Managers in Scranton Wednesday, August 26, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The schedule for the 2026 La Festa Italiana is provided by the La Festa committee. (COURTESY OF LA FESTA ITALIANA)
Show Caption
1 of 10
La Festa Italiana is Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-7, at Courthouse Square in downtown Scranton. Hours are Sept. 4, 4 p.m.-10 p.m.; Sept. 5 and 6, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; and Sept. 7, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thousands of people walk around Courthouse Square at La Festa Italiana in Scranton in 2025. (FILE PHOTO)
Expand
Some sweet talk gets La Festa off the ground
In 1976, when cultural events were popping up in honor of the United States bicentennial, Bob Pettinato dreamed up an Italian-style street festival. He would work, but he didn’t want to be the face of La Festa. He was a Republican Lackawanna County commissioner and didn’t want politics to be a problem. He decided to pair a civic leader with a Catholic priest.
“So, I told a little fib,” said Pettinato, now 87. He visited Sam Cali and the Rev. Anthony C. Marra. He got to Cali first.
“I said, ‘Well, Sam, you know, I’m looking for somebody from the social clubs, and I’m looking for somebody from the parishes to be co-chairmen. And I went to see Father Marra and he said he’d do it only if you did it,’ ” Pettinato recalled.
“And he said, ‘Father Marra said that?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what he said.’ He said, ‘Well, boy,’ he said, ‘I can’t turn Father Marra down.’ He said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ ”
“With that, I raced out of his office, and I drove right over to the South Side to the rectory of St. Francis. And luckily, I found Father Marra there, and I told him the same thing, only reversed. And he said, ‘Oh, Sam said that?’ I said, ‘Yep, that’s what he did.’ ‘Well,’ he says, ‘I can’t say no to Sam, he does so much for me.’ ”
Before his good friends died, he confessed to both men. They understood.
A chilly start
The first festival was Columbus Day weekend. It was also the debut of the UNICO porketta sandwich. The charitable group’s sandwiches became one of La Festa’s biggest stars.
“After the first year was a success, we decided to go big time, and we got Al Martino,” Pettinato said. “And of course, we had no money, and Al Martino charged $5,000 in those days.” It was only a few years after the singer had appeared in “The Godfather.”
La Festa sold “booster patches” to raise the money. “They were little stick-on patches that I charged people a dollar for,” Pettinato said. “Except, if I thought they could pay more, I would charge them more. I’d charge up to $100 for a booster patch.”
The singer arrived in Scranton but decided it would be too cold to risk his voice performing on the back of a flatbed truck.
Pettinato rushed over to meet Martino at the Hotel Casey. He offered to surround Martino with portable heaters, but a recent fire meant much of the area around Courthouse Square was without power.
“I told him we’d give him heaters. I didn’t say we were going to plug them in,” Pettinato said.
Later, over a drink, Pettinato asked Martino how the heaters worked. “Terrific,” the singer said.
“So, he saw the heaters, he sang like a bird, and the people loved him,” Pettinato said.
A few years later, La Festa moved to the warmer weather of Labor Day weekend and has been held there since, except for a pandemic cancellation.
Growth
Chris DiMattio has been president of La Festa for decades. He said it has boomed in the last 10 or 15 years.
“It’s a family-oriented festival,” he said. “You really don’t have to have a dime to come down and have a good time. There’s some great entertainment that you normally can’t see throughout the year or you’d have to pay to see it.”
That family-friendly atmosphere is important to Pettinato. Alcohol is not sold. “We could make a lot more money selling it, but we don’t,” he said.
What’s happening when?
La Festa Italiana’s hours are Sept. 4, 4 p.m.-10 p.m.; Sept. 5 and 6, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; and Sept. 7, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 4: The opening ceremony is at 5 p.m., followed by entertainment that will include Ray Massa’s EuroRhythms Italian Show Band.
Saturday, Sept. 5: The 14th Annual Captain James R. Minicozzi Memorial 5K Run and One Mile Fun Walk is at 10 a.m. It benefits scholarships for West Scranton High School students. See Runsignup.com/Minicozzi.
A car show begins at 1 p.m.
The musical acts will include the Cameos, a New Jersey oldies band. The Scranton Shakespeare Festival will celebrate Perry Como.
Sunday, Sept. 6: Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera will celebrate an Italian-language Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Peter’s Cathedral. The Rev. Joseph J. Adonizio, age 100 and a priest for 70 years, will be among several priests assisting.
The entertainment on Sunday includes a Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin-Bobby Darin tribute and Daddy-O and the Sax Maniax.
Monday, Sept. 7: The Gene Dempsey Orchestra will make its traditional appearance, but without leader Gene “Dempsey” Passarella, who died recently.
Throughout La Festa: Attractions include the Cali Foundation Heritage Tent, devoted to the history of La Festa and profiles of prominent Italian Americans; and a Cultural Tent that will host presentations on food, music and history, Italian-themed clothing and novelties, crafts and bocce.
Railfest
Also over Labor Day weekend, Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton will celebrate the past, present and future of American railroading on Sept. 4 to 6, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
Train enthusiasts can ride Steamtown’s steam-powered 1929 Baldwin Locomotive Works No. 26.
Railfest is free, with the exception of train rides and some special activities.
A free shuttle will connect Railfest and La Festa approximately every 30 minutes from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Railfest will be celebrating some milestones of its own: Steamtown’s 40th anniversary of becoming a national park site, the 200th anniversary of the start of railroading in the U.S. and America’s 250th birthday.
See Nps.gov/stea/planyourvisit/railfest-at-steamtown-national-historic-site.htm for information.