THE ITALIAN FESTIVAL: A Valuable Opportunity to Gather in a Spirit of Stewardship and Hospitality

The Italian Festival is more than just a beloved parish tradition. It is also St. Philip Neri’s largest opportunity to introduce our parish family to the local Fort Mill community. This year, we are excited to celebrate the 25 th anniversary of the festival, especially as this will also be our first in-person festival in two years! It will take place here on our St. Philip Neri campus, May 19-21.

While centered on delicious homemade Italian food, the festival will include many other events and activities. There will be around 50 vendors and artisans comprised of small businesses and local people who will be selling their wares and interacting with guests. Entertainment will be provided on the main stage outside, as well as select indoor locations. There will also be a silent auction taking place throughout the festival, as well as a live auction for some of the larger donated prizes. Of course, there will be plenty of fun activities for kids, including the Festival Fun Zone and the children’s parade.

Over the past 25 years, the Italian Festival has grown from a small gathering held in the school cafeteria to the largest recurring fundraising and community outreach event that our parish hosts. As Festival Chair Jim Funk knows, it takes the whole parish to make this festival a success.

“We need folks to help volunteer so we can provide a great experience for our guests from the local community,” he says.

In 2019, an estimated 10,000 guests attended the festival. It certainly takes a lot of people to help serve that many guests. In fact, over 250 parishioners will be needed to serve as volunteers.

The food for the festival is almost all homemade, so there will be plenty of opportunities to help prepare it. We will need volunteers to help prepare the meatballs and sausages by attending Meatball Madness and Sausage Storm. We will also distribute defined recipes for some of our classic dishes to be made at home and brought into the festival.

In addition to food preparation, we will need volunteers to help sell tickets, set up and tear down the festival, sell the food, sell beer and wine, empty trash cans during the festival, and much more. This is a great stewardship opportunity because there are so many ways that you can give of your time and talent to help welcome people from the greater Fort Mill area into our parish community.

If you are interested in volunteering, or would like more information, please email Michelle Dussault at mldussault@yahoo.com.

Parishioners and guests from the local community gather together to celebrate Italian culture and enjoy homemade Italian food.