But the highlight of the Italian festival was the food, featuring Italian specialties such as baked lasagna or ziti, eggplant parmesan, Italian meatballs or sausage, meatball subs, sausage and pepper subs, and of course pizza.

All the ingredients were donated by the parishioners and the ziti, lasagna and meatballs were prepped by the parishioners too. And at a pre-festival event called Meatball Madness, parishioners got together to make 5,500 eight-ounce meatballs prior to the three-day festival.

Oratorian Father Fabio Refosco, pastor, said events such as these serve many purposes.

"It brings the parish family together with the local community as we celebrate these special traditions and cultures," he said.

Also on hand was Oratorian Father John Giuliani, founding pastor of the church. He recalled the early days of the parish and the festival.

“When the parish was beginning, even before we had our own building, we would celebrate Mass at a Lutheran church and later a Presbyterian church,” Father Giuliani said. “I had keys to three Protestant churches. I would laugh with my brother priests and say, ‘I don’t say Mass at a Catholic church, only Protestant churches.’”

Father Giuliani said the first Italian festival was held on property that wasn’t even owned by St. Philip Neri.

“We needed to raise money. We didn’t even own the land at the time. When this property came available, we needed to have space for Mass, the school, and other activities,” he explained.

The parish was named for the founder of the Confederation of the Oratorians, St. Philip Neri, to honor order of religious men that administers and operates the parish.

“St. Philip Neri loved good times. He would take people on pilgrimages and then afterwards celebrate by having a picnic,” Father Giuliani said with pride. “The pope was even known to attend these celebrations.”

He explained that many of the parishioners were transplants from New York, New Jersey and other parts of the northeast. An Italian festival was just a natural outcome from that demographic.

Evelyn Willis came to the festival with her daughter Claire, 3, and son Ethan, 5.

“The festival was very well organized,” Willis said. “Plenty of parking, good variety of foods, nice vendors with different arts for sale and good live music. My daughter got to wear a tiara and be a princess for the day. My son loved the kids’ bounce house so much he wanted to come back the next day!”

According to Carson Luger, Italian festival chairman, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes.

“There are 25 committee leads that head up teams of volunteers to handle everything from set up to tear-down, outside food, entertainment, Kidzone, etc. We begin planning in October. In all, about 400 individuals contributed over 2,000 hours of volunteer time to ensure the success of the festival” he said.

Many of those volunteers came from Knights of Columbus Bishop Denis J. O’Connell Council 12366.

According to Grand Knight Bob Gesell, Knights and their families were involved in many different aspects of the event.

“The Knights operated the meatball sandwich and sausage booths,” Gesell said. “In addition, Knights were part of the festival set-up and tear-down groups, as well as food service, ticket sales and sold raffle tickets throughout the weekend.”

Luger said all proceeds are given back to the community through charities that strengthen God’s will and are fully supported by the Catholic Church. He also reported that there are various sponsors who help offset the costs and raise money at different levels of sponsorship: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Over 10 of the sponsors are at the top, platinum level.

In all, event organizers estimate that over 10,000 guests attended this year’s festival.