The festivities from Viva Italia Viva Edmonton woke up the neighbourhood in Giovanni Caboto Park yesterday during the last event of the 2010 East Meets West Festival.
The dancing, food, wine tasting and other entertainment were only a few of the reasons that Tony Pino brought his two children. He hoped they would also learn something about Italian culture to take home.
“I think it’s important for them to realize as much as they feasibly can about where they come from and how we used to do things,” he said. “As the generations go by — even my children, their command of Italian is very poor — we have to have organized events to not lose it completely.”
After returning from a World Youth Conference in Rome, president of Associazione Giovani Italiani di Edmonton/Italian Youth Association of Edmonton Francesco Sorgiovanni was inspired to bring back an Italian festival. His goal is to try to reinvigorate the passion about being Italian.
“We want to make this a yearly event, and we’d love for everybody to show up and be Italian for a day once a year,” he said.
