IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WLUC) – Italian Fest returned to Iron Mountain Saturday for its 19th year of celebrating Italian heritage.
Crispigna’s Italian Market Partner Jodi Formolo says they brought the classics like lasagna and pasta.
“There’s so many people in the community that whether Italian or not they love the food, and it’s just a great way to get the community together,” she said. “We’re over on the north side, which is a very old Italian-based location. Customers have been coming into our store for years, and we want to keep continuing this tradition.”
The festivities also included music in Italian, bucket raffles, and getting to know more about Italy. Iron Mountain DDA Event Coordinator Katherine DeMars says the event was first started to honor the local heritage.
“It’s when a lot of families come together,” she said. “People have their family reunions here, and people just love it because they can trace their lineage right back to Italy, and it’s a way to celebrate that on the community scale.”
People could taste specialty wines made from Michael Lo Duca’s family recipe.
“We’ve been around 85 years,” he said. “My great grandpa would come here, and we used to be an accordion company. He would play accordions and sell wine on the side.”
He says out of all the Italian festivals he attends throughout the Midwest, the one in Iron Mountain shares the strongest culture.
“There’s a pretty strong culture with the food, with tradition,” Lo Duca said. “So really, I come up here because of that. I don’t come up here for anything else. I come here for the people and how special it is up here.”
They hope to satiate your taste for Italian culture.
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