Pandemic worries cancel Vandergrift's Festa Italiana for 2nd straight year

Hold the sauce.

Festa Italiana di Vandergrift, or, just Festa, the popular Italian-themed summer festival in Vandergrift, has been canceled for a second straight season.

The pandemic led to organizers canceling Festa again this year. It’s always held in August. Organizers were hopeful that they would welcome back the celebratory day of food, live entertainment and festivities this year.

“It’s disappointing, but due to the circumstances I understand. Thousands of people normally attend,” said Vandergrift Mayor Barbara Turiak. “The town is just trying to be safe.”

Festa organizer Brian Putignano cited a lack of sponsors as the primary reason for the cancellation, along with covid-19 restrictions.

“We rely on sponsors, and they just were hesitant — a lot of them,” said Putignano, of Allegheny Township.

The festival is hosted annually by the Putignano family to honor their father, Vince Putignano, who was inspired to host an Italian-themed festival in Vandergrift after attending a similar festival in Pittsburgh’s Strip District in the 1990s.

The free event began 18 years ago and typically draws about 10,000 to 12,000 people at Kennedy Park.

“The first one was a big hit, and I didn’t expect that back then,” Putignano said. “It just took off.”

Putignano said Festa normally includes more than 20 vendors, and the live music and big-name entertainment is a huge draw.

“We had Joe Piscapo a few years back, and Al Martino from ‘The Godfather,’ ” Putignano said.

The festival is self-sustaining and costs about $35,000 to host.

Vinny Putignano, 15, of Brackenridge has attended Festa since he was a baby. Vinny is the founder’s grandson and Brian Putignano’s nephew.

He said he’s disappointed to miss another year of Festa and will miss selling T-shirts, announcing the wine tasting winners and seeing the smile on his grandmother’s face that she usually has eating with her family at Festa.

“Safety for our guests is, obviously, a priority, but as a family and community it will greatly be missed,” Vinny said.

Putignano said the pandemic affected sponsors, and about $4,000 in grant money from Westmoreland County’s Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau was unavailable this year.

“I feel bad for the vendors. They look to this event as a good fundraisers, and they’re missing out,” Brian Putignano said.

“We rely on sponsorships, ads and all of that,” Putignano said. “We take our sponsors into consideration.”

Festa also sponsors two annual $2,000 scholarships for area high school seniors of Italian descent who have ties to Vandergrift.

Organizers said they are hopeful they’ll still be able to award two scholarships this year.

“We still have a nest egg,” Putignano said.

Putignano said the committee will consider hosting a community Festa Mass, possibly in September or October.

“By then, everything should be under control,” he said. “I would love to make it the best one we’ve had.