Italian Market Festival returns to Philadelphia

Music. Merriment. Meatballs.

And you didn't even have to be Italian to enjoy them.

After a five year hiatus, the 9th Street Italian Market Festival returned to Philadelphia last weekend, drawing a crowd organizers estimated at 25,000. The event was sponsored by Sorrento Cheese, which has agreed to sponsor the festival for at least two more years.

"It's a great day, and it's a great day for the community," Philadelphia policeman Juan Delgado said, sharing remembrances of past festivals spent attempting to climb greased poles.

For those who miss the traditional festival game -- involving a 25 foot greasy climb to knock a ham off from atop a pole -- there is some good news.

"We're working very hard to bring the grease pole back," Festival Publicist Stephanie Pfeiffer said.

"Italian at heart," Delgado described the weekend as being "very festive." The event boosted both sales revenues and ethnic pride as attendees browsed local shops and were offered everything from $1 cups of homemade wine to red, white and green stocking caps and "Italian Stallion" license plate holders.

"We're Italian -- it's like going to Italy," festival attendee Tia Verdegen said, adding that the music was a particular highlight.

Singer Bobby Rydell drew a large crowd around the main stage with a repertoire of neighborhood favorites and classic Italian American ballads, but lesser known musicians weren't afraid to raise their voices -- or their amp volume.

"It adds excitement," Shawn McGuigan shouted over the punk-hardcore sound stylings of Wicked Fate.

Planted firmly between wine salesmen, the band roared and crackled but, despite earning a few confused looks, reportedly didn't affect its neighbors' business.

Anthony Grassia, at the stand in front of Grassia's Italian Market Spice Company, said that this year was only the icing on the cannoli.

"This is like a taste of next year," he said, hoping for better weather and continued popularity over the next few years of Sorrento-sponsored festivals.

Grassia, whose store has served the neighborhood for 75 years, added that the festival -- with a somewhat more diverse character -- seemed to be "building back."

The festival has undergone a transformation from the early days of its inception. Still a neighborhood affair, the scene in front of DiBruno's Bros. -- a speciality food shop -- was not very different from the buying, selling and shouting that greeted the store at its founding in 1939.

"It's a bit more of the hucksterish part of the market, people screaming at the top of their lungs," DiBruno's employee Benjamin Robling said. Waving and laughing as he sold cheese, he did business with "a lot of the regulars and a lot of people I haven't seen before too," the festival much the same as he remembered from his childhood.

Even those with less than fond memories of festivals past agreed that this year's was a success.

"It's... better than before," said Sukie Chimmanco, who remembered having to close her discount shop early in previous years when "the crowd got really bad."

"In the future I hope it will be like this," she concluded.

The festival's organizers were equally enthusiastic.

"It was evident how much the festival had been missed," Pfeiffer said. "They came out and partied. You could just tell the passion.... We kept the essence of what the festival was and added some elements to that."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.