Lackawanna County Pennsylvania La Festa Italiana Festival
For four days over Labor Day weekend, the square in front of the Lackawanna County Courthouse in downtown Scranton becomes an open-air piazza of food stalls, stages and heritage displays. The event is La Festa Italiana, Scranton’s annual Italian-American street festival, and the first thing to understand is what it is not. Despite the county name in the title, La Festa is no county fair: no fairgrounds, no livestock, no midway, no gate. Volunteers close the streets around Courthouse Square, vendors line all four sides, three stages run music into the night, and anyone can walk in. The 2026 edition, held Friday, September 4 through Monday, September 7, was billed as the 50th anniversary year, and the next edition is announced for Labor Day weekend, September 3 to 6, 2027.
About La Festa Italiana
La Festa Italiana is a four-day celebration of Italian-American food, music and heritage on Courthouse Square in downtown Scranton. The festival’s own site also gives a social-page form, La Festa Italiana di Lackawanna County, while its history shortens the name to La Festa. Scranton is the county seat of Lackawanna County, as the Pennsylvania State Archives county courthouses table records; the same table dates the county’s creation from Luzerne to August 13, 1878, a county date, not a festival one.
No legal or incorporated organiser name appears in any organiser-side layer. The festival’s own history calls the planners a relatively small group of dedicated board members and volunteers, and the name La Festa Committee surfaces in the festival’s own Committee Tent and in Diocese of Scranton reports. Chris DiMattio is the central figure: the festival’s own history calls him a committee member for 35 years and its President and General Chairman for more than 30 years, while Diocese reports style him La Festa Italiana President and Chairman in 2026 and La Festa Committee President in 2024, the forms standing unmerged as published. Lackawanna County and the City of Scranton appear in the festival’s own 2026 layer as major sponsors, and the presenting sponsor named for 2026 was Lehigh Valley Hospital-Dickson City, part of Jefferson Health; sponsorship is not organisation. The Scranton Chapter of UNICO is a participant, never the organiser.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | La Festa Italiana, a four-day Italian-American street festival |
| Venue | Courthouse Square, downtown Scranton; there are no fairgrounds |
| Host city | Scranton, the county seat of Lackawanna County |
| Organiser | A board of volunteers and the La Festa Committee; no legal organiser name is published |
| Admission | Free in every published layer; food, drink and vendor purchases cost extra |
| 2026 edition | Friday, September 4 to Monday, September 7, 2026, billed as the 50th anniversary year |
| Next edition | Labor Day weekend, Friday, September 3 to Monday, September 6, 2027 |
| Published hours | Friday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Monday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Parking | No festival parking price is published; garages stand near the square and on-street parking is limited |
A Bicentennial Gift: The Festival’s History
The founding account is the festival’s own. La Festa Italiana was initiated in 1976, the Bicentennial year, and was conceived by Robert W. Pettinato, then a Lackawanna County Commissioner, as a way for the local Italian-American community to offer a gift that would keep on giving. A later Diocese layer styles Pettinato simply as La Festa Founder; his 1976 office is history, not evidence that county government runs the festival today. Italian parishes, businesses and fraternal organisations were invited to take part. Courthouse Square was chosen as the city’s equivalent of a piazza.
The first festival was a one-day affair on the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend, with about 40 vendors along the North Washington Avenue side of the square and an estimated crowd of 20,000. In 1981 it moved to Labor Day weekend, where it has stayed ever since, expanding first to three days and then to four. The 2026 edition was billed in the festival’s own layers as the 50th anniversary of its founding, as La Festa ’26, our 50th anniversary year, and as the 50th La Festa Italiana. Those are anniversary billings, recorded as published; no edition number is computed from the 1976 date here, and 2026 is called only what its own layers call it. A press layer billed 2017 (September 1 to 4) as the 42nd La Festa Italiana. Attendance figures are estimates too: the festival’s own history estimates 100,000 people over four days, and 2026 guide layers put the tradition at more than 150,000, but neither is a counted crowd.
For a useful comparison, see the Juniata County Pennsylvania Fair Festival for another county festival.
What to Expect at the 2026 Festival
The programme below belongs to the 2026 edition, as the festival’s own announcement published it. Four days of entertainment ran across three stages, among them Alfredo’s Main Stage and the Wayne Bank Stage.
Friday and Saturday on the Square
Friday opened on Alfredo’s Main Stage with Ray Massa’s EuroRhythms Italian Show Band, also playing Saturday; The Untouchables closed the night. Saturday began with the 14th Annual Captain James R. Minicozzi Memorial 5K Run and 1 Mile Fun Walk at 10 a.m., run with the Scranton Chapter of UNICO, its proceeds going to the Boys and Girls Club of Northeastern Pennsylvania Christmas Party and West Scranton High School scholarships. A car show and parade followed from 1 to 4 p.m. on North Washington Avenue, sponsored by Toyota of Scranton. The Cameos, a Perry Como celebration with the Scranton Shakespeare Festival, and a Billy Joel tribute by Frank Provinzono with Ken McGraw’s Brass and Ivory Band filled Saturday’s music bill.
Sunday’s Mass and Monday’s Close
Sunday began with Mass in Italian at 10 a.m. in the Cathedral of Saint Peter, one block away, with Bishop Joseph C. Bambera presiding in the 2026 layer. Performers included T.J. Capobianco, billed as La Festa’s premiere Italian vocalist from The Met, a Connie Francis tribute by Nicole Rasmus, and a Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bobby Darin tribute show featuring Chris DiMattio and Andy DiMino, before Daddy-O and the Sax Maniax closed the night. Monday featured the Gene Dempsey Orchestra, in honour of Gene “Dempsey” Passarella, a cannoli eating contest, and Popstar Drive as the closing act.
Food, Heritage and Family Features
The best-known food item is the porketta sandwich prepared by the Scranton Chapter of UNICO, and the Cappuccino Café pours coffee all weekend. The 2026 layers also name a Heritage Tent (Cali Foundation), a new Cultural Tent (Fidelity Bank), bocce games, the Onvo Kids Zone, crafts, and strolling vocalists sponsored by the Coccia Foundation. The 2025 edition, held August 29 through September 1, 2025, had a bill belonging to that year alone: Alfredo’s Main Stage opened Friday with a tribute to Paul LaBelle, leader of the Exact Change Band, then Picture Perfect; Saturday brought The Cameos, a Billy Joel tribute and, in a guide layer, Lorenzo Pugliese’s Frankie Valli tribute at 8 p.m.; a Heritage Park, bocce and bounce rides joined the returning porketta and Cappuccino Café.
Planning Your Visit
Admission, Hours and the One Priced Item
Walking into La Festa costs nothing. The festival’s own 2026 announcement declares that admission is free, its history adds that there is no admission charge, the organiser’s 2025 release says the same, the City of Scranton’s events list priced tickets for 2025 at zero, and the visitors bureau’s 2026 FAQ confirms you can walk in without a ticket, while food, drinks and vendor purchases cost extra. The economics, per the festival’s history: vendors pay a modest fee partly covering operating expenses, and surplus funds go to local charities. Published hours, identical in the 2025 release and the bureau’s 2026 hours, are Friday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Monday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The single priced participation item in the organiser record is not a ticket: Minicozzi Memorial 5K registration cost twenty-five dollars in advance or thirty-five dollars on race day in the festival’s own 2026 layer.
Getting There and Parking
The festival occupies Courthouse Square and surrounding downtown streets, a closed-street footprint. The bureau’s page gives the square’s GPS pin as 200 Adams Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18503, a navigation point for the square and not a postal address for the festival. On parking, a gap must be stated plainly: no festival-published parking price, lot list or shuttle arrangement exists in the organiser’s own record, so festival parking terms are unverified here. The bureau layer documents provision only: several parking garages are conveniently located near Courthouse Square, and on-street parking may be limited downtown.
Where You Sleep: No Camping
A downtown street festival has no camping, and La Festa is no exception. No camping, tent or overnight offer is published in any organiser, city or bureau layer, and none attaches to a footprint of courthouse square and closed streets. Visitors who stay over use ordinary lodging; campgrounds elsewhere in the county are separate businesses.
A Sample Festival Day
Take the Saturday of the 2026 edition as a template. Runners start early, because the Minicozzi 5K steps off at 10 a.m. By 11 a.m. the square is open: a circuit of the vendor rows, a porketta sandwich and a coffee at the Cappuccino Café fill the late morning. The car show holds North Washington Avenue from 1 to 4 p.m., leaving the afternoon for the Heritage Tent and bocce before the Perry Como celebration and the Billy Joel tribute close the night at 10 p.m.
Not a County Fair: How La Festa Compares
The Lackawanna County Heritage Fair is a separate event at Montage Mountain in Scranton, in a late-spring slot, with its own dates and third-party paid-admission layers; none of its facts belong to La Festa, which never takes place on that mountain. The Luzerne County Fair at Dallas is a different county’s fair entirely. The borough Italian festivals of the Scranton area, such as the Felittese Italian Festival in Old Forge and the procession festivals of Dunmore and Jessup, are likewise separate and never part of La Festa’s programme. Pages attaching June dates, a cultural-centre venue or a fifteen-dollar adult admission to a so-called Scranton Italian festival contradict the festival’s own record on date, place and price, as do the ticket and shuttle terms of out-of-state events sharing the La Festa or Festa Italiana name.
Festival Checklist
- Enter the Minicozzi 5K in advance to pay the lower race fee, and be there before its 10 a.m. Saturday start.
- Allow extra time for parking, because on-street spaces near the square are limited.
- Plan a Sunday around the 10 a.m. Italian Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, one block from the site.
- Check the published hours for the day you attend, because Monday closes two hours earlier than the weekend days.
Beyond the Festival Grounds
Downtown Scranton’s streets, cafés and shops surround the closed blocks, so stepping out of the crowd and back in raises no gate or re-entry question, because there is no gate. Build a longer weekend around the festival as its anchor, but note that the railroad events held the same weekend at the national historic site across town are a separate attraction, not an extension of La Festa.
Why La Festa Matters to Scranton
La Festa’s significance starts with its founding idea: an ethnic community offering its city a gift that would keep on giving. The festival still works as its history describes, with vendors’ modest fees covering part of the costs, surplus funds going to local charities, and the memorial run turning Saturday exercise into scholarships and a children’s party. It also functions as the city’s piazza in the founders’ sense, a free gathering where Italian-American parishes, businesses and fraternal organisations set up side by side. A heritage study of the region’s Italian community, used here only as corroboration, describes La Festa as northeastern Pennsylvania’s largest ethnic festival, a ranking that matches a tradition grown from 40 vendors on one side of the square to estimated six-figure crowds over four days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is La Festa Italiana a county fair run by Lackawanna County?
No. It is a downtown street festival on Courthouse Square in Scranton, planned by a board of volunteers and the La Festa Committee, with no fairgrounds, livestock or midway. Lackawanna County and the City of Scranton appear in the festival’s own 2026 layer as major sponsors only; no legal organiser name is published at all.
How much does it cost to get in?
Nothing. The festival’s own 2026 announcement states that admission is free, its history says there is no admission charge, and the visitors bureau confirms you can walk in and hear the entertainment without a ticket. You pay only for what you buy, apart from optional items such as the memorial 5K, whose 2026 registration was twenty-five dollars in advance or thirty-five dollars on race day.
Where exactly is the festival held, and where do I park?
It fills Courthouse Square in downtown Scranton, vendors on all four sides, and the Sunday Italian Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Peter one block away. The festival publishes no street address of its own; the visitors bureau gives a GPS pin of 200 Adams Avenue for the square. No festival parking price is published; the bureau notes only that garages stand near the square and on-street parking may be limited.
Can I camp at or near the festival?
There is no festival camping: the event occupies a courthouse square and closed downtown streets, and no organiser, city or bureau layer publishes any camping, tent or overnight offer for it. Staying over means ordinary lodging in or around Scranton.
What to Expect From the Next Lackawanna County Pennsylvania La Festa Italiana Festival
How often is Lackawanna County Pennsylvania La Festa Italiana Festival held?
Once a year. The festival’s own history traces the move to Labor Day weekend in 1981 and the growth from one day to the current four-day format, Friday through Monday, and documented editions from 2019 through 2026 sit in that same slot.
When is the next Lackawanna County Pennsylvania La Festa Italiana Festival?
The festival’s own homepage announces the next edition for Labor Day weekend, September 3 to 6, 2027, a Friday-to-Monday span. No hours or lineup for 2027 exist yet in the record, so the 2026 performers named above should not be assumed for 2027.
Will the dates change?
The Labor Day weekend slot is the documented pattern since 1981, and the announced 2027 dates follow it exactly. Dates have changed before in this festival’s history, so the announced span remains the organisers’ announcement rather than a guarantee, and checking the festival’s own pages before travelling is the sensible course.
The gift metaphor in the founding story has proved durable: a one-day Bicentennial gesture on one side of a courthouse square became a four-day tradition that still charges nothing at an entrance it does not have, still feeds its crowds from parish and neighbourhood stalls, and still sends its surplus to local charities. A piazza rather than a fairground is what a trip to Scranton over Labor Day weekend offers.
