Let me start by giving you little bit of background on yours truly.
I happen to love festivals and parades.
Having said that, let me clarify by saying that I love the traditional Old World and European festivals.
Second to those are the parades and festivals back east (where I'm from).
Which of course makes perfect sense to me since there are more European residents over there as well as generations that keep close ties to their ethnic European homeland.
Now, I live in Southern California, and as excited as I once was to attend a local festival or parade, I have been nothing short of disappointed.
One too many times.
To the point where I just don't enjoy going to them.
And then we have the Sicilian festival.
Well, should I give this festival a whirl at the risk of being disappointed again? Risk I shall! At first I thought the idea of going to a Sicilian Festival would spark much interest in it being a family outing.
You know all 11 of us plus Liz & Mika (my should be SIL and my 5 year old niece).
But once again, as usual; When the event gets closer people start to "drop like flies" out of the plans.
I really don't get it.
So off we went, just the 4 of us (Dave, Dominic, Cosette, and myself).
We headed down south to Little Italy in downtown San Diego.
Passing through the charred hillside that was recently burned in a wildfire a few days back.
Once we arrived in San Diego, we found a clear blue sky, no smoke in the air whatsoever, and a lovely mild temperature of 68 degrees.
Beautiful.
It was a fairly busy event, so parking wasn't very ample.
It took a while of us driving around in circles looking for an empty spot, passing and re-passing several of the same vehicles on the same hunt.
Eventually parking many blocks away, strolling the Jacaranda lined boulevard, we walked over to India street, where the festival was held.
Arriving at the festival and immediately noticing that it was quite lively! Sights and sounds of families (and their dogs), many merchandise & travel booths.
Different cultural associations and then all of the food vendors! The odd thing that we notice however is that most of the vendors are not Sicilian or even Italian! This definitely annoyed Cosette (my 12 year old), because she is a purest! As an adult, I understand that you have to fill the festival with whoever is going to pay for a spot.
But it was just a slight bit strange that less than 15% of the vendors had anything to do with Sicily/Italy! (I happened to only photographed the Italian ones.
Hehe) On a silly side note, I had to pee pretty badly when we first arrived, and we were on the hunt for a porta-potty (gross I know).
But when you gotta go, you gotta go, so porta-potty it'll have to be! As we searched for this portable restroom, we passed the first of a few stages.
There was Italian music playing, costumed performers entertaining, and a crowd dancing in the street.
We had to stop here! Alas, there's fun to be had.
Forget about my bladder.
Fun is definitely what we had; I loved listening to the music, swaying along, people watching, some real characters in action.
I just couldn't get enough! This is where I needed to be! I was grinning from ear to ear, the kids were enjoying themselves, there was lots of laughter, and wonderful memories being made.
What more could I ask for?! By the way, in the interim of scheduled entertainers.
I finally went to relive myself.
We continued our afternoon walking amongst the crowds, stopping at more stages, listening to more music and just in general immersing ourselves and talking it all in.
All in all, I have to admit that this was the best festival that I've ever experienced (on the west coast).
And no I am not being biased! Go check it out for yourself! Go have fun "andare a divertirsi"!
I happen to love festivals and parades.
Having said that, let me clarify by saying that I love the traditional Old World and European festivals.
Second to those are the parades and festivals back east (where I'm from).
Which of course makes perfect sense to me since there are more European residents over there as well as generations that keep close ties to their ethnic European homeland.
Now, I live in Southern California, and as excited as I once was to attend a local festival or parade, I have been nothing short of disappointed.
One too many times.
To the point where I just don't enjoy going to them.
And then we have the Sicilian festival.
Well, should I give this festival a whirl at the risk of being disappointed again? Risk I shall! At first I thought the idea of going to a Sicilian Festival would spark much interest in it being a family outing.
You know all 11 of us plus Liz & Mika (my should be SIL and my 5 year old niece).
But once again, as usual; When the event gets closer people start to "drop like flies" out of the plans.
I really don't get it.
So off we went, just the 4 of us (Dave, Dominic, Cosette, and myself).
We headed down south to Little Italy in downtown San Diego.
Passing through the charred hillside that was recently burned in a wildfire a few days back.
Once we arrived in San Diego, we found a clear blue sky, no smoke in the air whatsoever, and a lovely mild temperature of 68 degrees.
Beautiful.
It was a fairly busy event, so parking wasn't very ample.
It took a while of us driving around in circles looking for an empty spot, passing and re-passing several of the same vehicles on the same hunt.
Eventually parking many blocks away, strolling the Jacaranda lined boulevard, we walked over to India street, where the festival was held.
Arriving at the festival and immediately noticing that it was quite lively! Sights and sounds of families (and their dogs), many merchandise & travel booths.
Different cultural associations and then all of the food vendors! The odd thing that we notice however is that most of the vendors are not Sicilian or even Italian! This definitely annoyed Cosette (my 12 year old), because she is a purest! As an adult, I understand that you have to fill the festival with whoever is going to pay for a spot.
But it was just a slight bit strange that less than 15% of the vendors had anything to do with Sicily/Italy! (I happened to only photographed the Italian ones.
Hehe) On a silly side note, I had to pee pretty badly when we first arrived, and we were on the hunt for a porta-potty (gross I know).
But when you gotta go, you gotta go, so porta-potty it'll have to be! As we searched for this portable restroom, we passed the first of a few stages.
There was Italian music playing, costumed performers entertaining, and a crowd dancing in the street.
We had to stop here! Alas, there's fun to be had.
Forget about my bladder.
Fun is definitely what we had; I loved listening to the music, swaying along, people watching, some real characters in action.
I just couldn't get enough! This is where I needed to be! I was grinning from ear to ear, the kids were enjoying themselves, there was lots of laughter, and wonderful memories being made.
What more could I ask for?! By the way, in the interim of scheduled entertainers.
I finally went to relive myself.
We continued our afternoon walking amongst the crowds, stopping at more stages, listening to more music and just in general immersing ourselves and talking it all in.
All in all, I have to admit that this was the best festival that I've ever experienced (on the west coast).
And no I am not being biased! Go check it out for yourself! Go have fun "andare a divertirsi"!