28th Annual Italian Family Festa (public event)

Come to Downtown Willow Glen for the the 28th annual Italian American Heritage Foundation's Italian Family Festa! The popular Italian Family Festa is the oldest and largest event of its kind on the West Coast. The Festa has shared the full richness of being "Italian" with hundreds of thousands of patrons. It has become a superb showcase in the folklore of glorious Italy, with its Italian Village atmosphere, food, costumes, art and photo exhibits, games, and musical entertainment.

Its purpose was to honor the City of San Jose during the 1977 Bicentennial celebration. It was the first ethnic festival to be held in downtown San Jose. Our Festa helped to identify San Jose as the "City of Festivals" and as a diverse ethnic community that promotes the achievements of many cultures. This inspired a number of ethnic organizations to hold their festivals in downtown San Jose and influenced their festival formats.

Featured at our Festa is the pony-drawn San Jose Italian Festa Cart which is covered with paintings and sculpture of San Jose history. The Festival also includes a grape-stomping contest, children’s games, a Tarantella contest, dancing, and much to be announced later.

An essential part of our Festa deals with the promotion of Italian culture, and that includes food. Our entertainment includes local performers who perform some non Italian music, songs and dances. Varied arts and crafts vendors sell products representing many ethnic cultures.

More information to come!