Milwaukee City Wire

Festa Italiana is set to return to Milwaukee this year, albeit with a new look and different surroundings.

Fox6Now.com reports after much haggling and several change of plans the two-day event will take place on the grounds of the Italian Community Center Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25.

While the changes mean the event will not be held on Summerfest grounds or be held in summer, Italian Community Center Board director and President Rose Ann Ceraso Fritchie is assuring all everything else will be what so many have come to know and love.

"Food, family and tradition,” she added. “This is a Festa Italiana experience. We’re bringing all the Festa favorites -- including watching our Italian dance group, Cucina, Italian Idol, the Mass and procession and more -- to our own backyard."

Ceraso Fritchie added all the changes are calculated ones.

"We made a decision, and it was fiscally based to not hold Festa 2022 on the Summerfest grounds, Henry Maier festival grounds in July," she said, adding that money and the coronavirus pandemic have made it difficult to hold a large event.

"Consequently, we just did not feel that it was fiscally responsible for us to risk the money in a large festival this year," she said.

Back in April, Festa officials released a notice announcing that the event would be canceled, which Ceraso Fritchie now admits caught a lot of people off guard and left them feeling agitated.

"It upset people a great deal. I’m very sorry," said Ceraso Fritchie. "They have no idea how much it hurt those of us on the board of directors and intimate in the community. We took a lot of heat for it. I cannot tell you how many phone calls I sat through. Believe me, I've gotten an earful."

When asked if she feels Festa Italiana would ever return to Maier Festival Park, Ceraso Fritchie sounded unsure.

"Although things are getting better; business is coming back – at least for the conference center, parking is not quite where it should be, it really depends on how it goes this year fiscally as to what we'll be able to do in the future," she said.