Italian Heritage Festival in Buffalo, NY

The Italian Heritage Festival in Buffalo, NY is taking place on July 15 - 18, 2010. The festival will be centered on Hertel Ave., which is the heart of Buffalo's Little Italy area. Each year, the festival offers food, entertainment, and activities that can be enjoyed by the entire family.

The street is shut down during the festival so that carnival rides and tents can be set up. The street is packed with people during this popular Buffalo festival. It is common for a visitor count for the weekend to be over 50,000 people.

Several entertaining acts are scheduled for the weekend. On the main stage, the weekend kicks off with opening ceremonies followed by the Sorrento Cheese Building Contest. Bands scheduled to perform include Crooners, Formula Band, The Boys of Summer, Chuck Cardone, Franco Corso, Zooma Zooma, and Tony Galla. The Italian Idol singing competiion will also take place here at 2PM on Saturday. A bilingual Italian/English mass will be offered Sunday morning at 9:30. Cooking demonstrations will be offered on the Sorrento Cooking Stage throughout the weekend by local chefs.

New to the festival this year is Dancing Under the Stars in which Joe Mesi, Tony Maisello, and Dennis DiPaolo dance with professional instructors and the crowd will influence the judges vote for a winner. This takes place on Saturday from 4 to 6PM.

The Miss Italian Festival will happen during the weekend where young women compete in a pageant to be named Miss Italian Festival.

The three winners of the $1,000 Russell Salvatore Scholarship Award will be announced.

A replica of the Trevi Fountain will be set up where you can toss your coins to donate to Re-Tree WNY. Re-Tree WNY is an organization devoted to planting new trees in western New York after many were lost to the ice storm in 2006.

There will be about 55 food vendors lining Hertel Ave. offering food and desserts, but based on years past this food is usually more like fair food. Italian ice is a popular choice to cool down. Of course, pizza, pasta, and sausages are available as well. My favorite was the frozen piece of cheesecake on a stick.

For the kids, there are many popular carnival rides and games set up throughout the festival. For the adults, a bocce tournament takes place during the weekend.

Come out with the rest of Buffalo and explore the festival this July.