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<\/p>\nLa Festa Italiana kicked off earlier today to mark its 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n
SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Whether it be savory or sweet, there’s an endless menu of Italian food at La Festa Italiana in downtown scranton; festival-goers say they come hungry for their favorites.<\/p>\n
“Porketta sandwich, pizza frittes. We were here four generations,” says Chris Gardier of Dunmore.<\/p>\n
As the crowds fill downtown scranton\u2026. There’s more than just food on the minds of many\u2026 this year the festival marks a major milestone, celebrating 50 years of Italian heritage.<\/p>\n
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“Well, it was designed to be kept on giving, but I tell you that I prayed a lot, logging hard. Ok that it would last, and my prayers have been answered,” said Pettinato.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bob Pettinato is one of the founding members of La Festa Italiana\u2026 he says he can’t help but reflect on how beloved this festival has become… the event wasn’t always on Labor Day weekend. The first festival was held in October 1976 as a celebration for America’s bicentennial.<\/p>\n
“It’s grown immensely we started out with the italian parishes and about a dozen italian american social clubs on one block of n. Washington Ave., and it’s growing into totally around the block, ok, 60-70 vendors,” said Pettinato.<\/p>\n
At opening ceremonies Friday night\u2026 92-year-old Jeanne Davis of Throop was honored for her dedication to the festival\u2026 for the last 50 years she’s sat in the same spot in the front of the stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I love being here, and I love La Festa,” said Davis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For other festival-goers, the Labor Day tradition brings back memories.<\/p>\n
“I was an 11-year-old kid. I had my first paying job with Joe Pafarriah as the tomato head, handing out free pizzas, and I’ve never missed it. I’ve been here 50 years,” said Gardier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Festa Italiana kicked off earlier today to mark its 50th anniversary. SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Whether it be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-279556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}