Italian Festival!

Come join us at our 30th annual, September 22-24, 2017.

Welcome to Seattle's 30th Annual Festa Italiana! Festa Italiana is an all-volunteer community organization which produces an annual series of events the last week of September, culminating in a major Italian Festival at Seattle Center. Since 1988, Festa Italiana has been celebrating the cultural roots of Italians and Italian-Americans in the Pacific Northwest by promoting the arts, the food and the culture that are uniquely Italian.

Come join us in the beautiful Fisher Pavilion and the surrounding grounds and buildings at Seattle Center as we present the 30th Annual Italian Festival, September 23 & 24, 2017.
Times are 10AM - 7PM, Saturday and Sunday.

Friday night at 7PM we also present the "Taste of Italy"^TM. Details below.

Our highlights include two concerts starring New York tenor Aaron Caruso in only his third appearance in Seattle, Celebrity Chef Rossella Rago a great schedule of cooking demos, puppetry by the Olde World Puppet Theater and a Grape Stomping competition which has to be seen to be believed! By popular demand, the Food Court & Vendor Market has been expanded as well.

As always, we will again offer a wide array of cultural and educational opportunities in which to participate and learn. Year after year, however, our main attractions continue to be food, entertainment and fun for the whole family!

Calendar 2017

Chef Rossella Rago Returns to Festa for our 30th Annual!

At 3:00 PM on both Saturday and Sunday, September 23 & 24, 2017, Festa Italiana is proud to present Rossella Rago as our Celebrity Chef for the 30th Annual Italian Festival at Seattle Center. She will headline a dazzling line-up of local chefs from Seattle's best Italian restaurants on the "Great Italian Chefs" Cooking Stage that runs from Noon to 5 PM daily. Previous Celebrity Chefs have included Mario Batali, Anne Burrell, Rocco DiSpirito, Michael Chiarello, Mary Ann Esposito, Biba Caggiano, Christina Pirello, Maria Liberati, Rossella Rago, and in 2015, Nick Stellino, host of Cooking with Nick Stellino on Public Television.

Rossella Rago is the host of the popular web cooking show Cooking with Nonna. In each episode, Rossella invites an Italian American nonna (grandma) to cook with her, sharing traditional Italian recipes and fond memories of growing up in Italian in America. Rossella has traveled the country and has performed cooking demonstrations in many cities across the United States, with local grandmothers as her partners. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Rossella spent her childhood in the kitchen with her maternal grandmother, Nonna Romana. In fact in July, 2010, with Nonna Romana and Mamma Angela on her team, Rossella won the Food Network: 24 Hour Restaurant Battle - Battle Italiano and won many new fans across the nation.

In March of this year, Rossella published her first cookbook. Entitled Cooking with Nonna: Celebrate Food and Family with Over 100 Classic Recipes from Italian Grandmothers, the book is a collection of recipes and memories shared by her Nonna Romana as well as 24 other grandmothers representing different regions of Italy.

Tenor Aaron Caruso in Concert

Returning to the Italian Festival for the first time in ten years, Aaron Caruso has just finished an 8-city tour of Italy where among other venues, he sang in Rome with a 60-piece carabinieri orchestra!

This young tenor with a big voice is no stranger to big stages, having appeared on Broadway as the star of a musical about Mario Lanza. In New York City recently, he sold out his solo concert at Carnegie Hall and sang on the red carpet for NBC's Columbus Day Parade. More...

Aaron is scheduled to perform at Festa at 4 PM on both Saturday and Sunday and, rumor has it, will also be involved in the big Festa "All-Star" Jam Session at 7 PM on Saturday night.

DO THE STOMP!

Jump in with both feet and make wine as they used to in the old country. Put together a three-person team and compete for T-shirts and great prizes. What a Show! More Grape Stomp information.

Bocce Tournament

Now back in the Seattle Center Pavilion, this Italian version of lawn bowling is always one of our most popular events. Featuring a Masters division for professionals and a Recreational division for occasional players, it's fascinating to watch. Tournament rules and Bocce information.

Olde World Puppet Theater presents "Pinocchio" in Tino's Cortile

A retelling of the classic Italian children's story about a puppet that comes to life, performed by by a the renowned Olde World Puppet Theater outdoors in the children's courtyard of the Italian Festival at Seattle Center, along with the famous Pizza Toss, an Italian Dog Show, hands-on activities and an inflatable soccer court for soccer clinics for children of all ages - all free!

Puppy Parades

Sicilian Sight Hounds, known in Italian as Cirneci dell'Etna, will be exhibited along with Italian Greyhounds and other Italian breeds as part of the expanded children's activities at the Italian Festival with "Puppy Parades" each day at 12:15 and 2:15 PM. See the complete schedule.

More Attractions

Le Arti della Festa Italiana International Art Show, an Italian Car Show and the Historical Photo Exhibit about Seattle's earliest Italians.

Food

Pizza, Pasta, Italian Sausage, Salami, Meatballs, Foccacia, Gelato, Birra, Vino, Espresso and more. Plus: Great family entertainment, crafts, food-sampling booths and three Wine & Beer Gardens!

Win a  One-Week Stay in Italy

Win a one-week stay in Italy for two in a villa in Tuscany from Italy4Real.com. Raffle Tickets $5 a piece. Only 1,000 chances will be sold. Drawing at 6:00pm Sunday in the Fisher Pavilion.