The Warren Italian-American Heritage Festival has been drawing a crowd to Courthouse Square now for 28 years, and it takes a crowd to put on the downtown festival.
Festival president Phil Sidoti said the organization has about 110 members. Not all are active, but those who are will be staffing entrances, working in the booths, setting up, tearing down and doing whatever is necessary for the celebration of Italian culture.
In addition to the outside vendors who come in every year, Sidoti said the festival is responsible for such offerings the beer tent, the fried dough, cheese puff and the cookie tent.
Cookie chairwoman Charlene Monsanty said they will sell about 1,000 cannoli over the four days and even more pizzelles, the two most popular sweets.
''We'll have the wedding cookies and the lemon drops,'' Monsanty said. ''And we try to put some chocolate in there for the chocolate lovers.''
The festival opens at 4 p.m. today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the main attraction on opening day will be the Miss Italian Pageant at 8 p.m. Eight young women from Trumbull County will compete this year, and the pageant will be preceded by the Tiny King & Queen event at 6:30 p.m.
Fact Box
WHAT: 28th Italian-American Heritage Festival.
WHEN: 4 to 11 p.m. today and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
WHERE: Courthouse Square, West Market Street and North Park Avenue,
Warren.
HOW MUCH: $3. For more information, call 330-550-7877.
Today
4 p.m. Ribbon cutting ceremony (main entrance)
6-10 p.m. Cultural/heritage displays (in front of courthouse)
6-11 p.m. Bocce tournament
6:30 p.m. Tiny King & Queen Pageant (main stage)
6:30-10:30 p.m. Tom Angelo (beer tent)
8 p.m. Miss Italian Pageant (main stage)
Friday
9:30 a.m. Kick-Off breakfast (beer tent)
5-11 p.m. Bocce tournament
6-10 p.m. Cultural/heritage displays (in front of courthouse)
6:30-11 p.m. Rex Taneri (beer tent)
8 p.m. Dana School of Dance (main stage)
9:30 p.m. Stefano (main stage)
Saturday
9 a.m.-11 p.m. Bocce tournament
Noon-10 p.m. Cultural/heritage displays (in front of courthouse)
1 p.m. Wine tasting competition with registration starting at 11 a.m. (gazebo)
1-5 p.m. Capri Band (beer tent)
1:30 p.m. Pasta sauce contest with registration starting at noon (culture tent)
2 p.m. Morra tournament
2-4 p.m. John Gabriele (culture tent)
4 p.m. Children's entertainment
7-11 p.m. Avanti Band (beer tent)
7:15 p.m. Gabriel and Friends (main stage)
8:30 p.m. Graziana (main stage)
9:45 p.m. Moreno Fruzzetti (main stage)
Sunday
9 a.m. Bocce tournament
9:45 a.m. Continental breakfast
10:45 a.m. Procession formation (culture tent)
11 a.m. Italian outdoor Mass
Noon-10 p.m. Cultural/heritage displays (in front of courthouse)
1-5 p.m. Jim Frank Trio (beer tent)
2 p.m. Parade
2-4 p.m. John Gabriele (culture tent)
7-11 p.m. Frank Gallo (beer tent)
7:15 p.m. Gabriel and Friends (main stage)
8:30 p.m. Graziana (main stage)
9:45 p.m. Moreno Fruzzetti (main stage)
11 p.m. Fireworks display
The first day of competition in the bocce tournament gets underway at 6 p.m.
The cultural and heritage display, open all four days, will feature all 20 flags representing the different regions of Italy, Sidoti said. A new addition this year will be a display created last year at the Italian Honorary Consulate in Cleveland to commemorate the 150th anniversary in 2011 of the unification of Italy.
Radio personality Vince Camp will be the guest speaker at Friday's kick off breakfast, which also will feature the recipients of the seven $1,000 scholarships awarded by the festival.
Friday's main stage entertainment includes a performance by opera students from Youngstown State University's Dana School of Music.
''I'd really like to see a lot of people come out for them,'' Sidoti said. ''Opera is a part of our heritage. These students sing a lot of opera arias and they are really good.''
Local winemakers and pasta sauce chefs will get to show off their work in contests on Saturday, and the morra tournament starts at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Singers Moreno Fruzzetti and Graziana, who last appeared at the festival in 2009, return to perform on the main stage both Saturday and Sunday.
The traditional outdoor Italian Mass opens the final day of the festival, and the annual parade steps off at 2 p.m. with Shawn Pompelia, vice president at Huntington National Bank, as parade master. The festival concludes with a fireworks display at 11 p.m.