At the end of last week’s column, I said that I would write another piece or two on non-metropolitan New York before the weather goes bad. I will keep true to that promise, but this piece is a bit time sensitive. I write this after returning from Hoboken’s Italian Festival with some friends, and I was reminded of New York’s San Gennaro Festival. I’m totally not knocking on Hoboken’s festival, the community put a lot of effort into the very enjoyable event, but San Gennaro is much larger and more hyped up than Hoboken’s festival. San Gennaro runs for 11 days, primarily on Mulberry Street between Canal and Houston Streets, but the festive atmosphere permeates all of Little Italy. This year’s festival takes place from September 15th to 25th.
An important note about San Gennaro: it is known for being quite the feast, but it is a Roman Catholic religious event. Some of the event’s many parades are religious processions. The most important religious procession takes place on the 19th, which is the feast day of San Gennaro. (He is also known as Saint Januarius.) His statue is carried through the streets from the local church on the feast day. A lot of non-Catholics attend the festivities, but I’m still making a note of this since some people are really sensitive about religion.
Every day of the festival, there are free events and live performances at the festival stage at the corner of Grand and Mott Streets. On the 16th, there’s the famous cannoli eating contest, and cannoli eating contests are actually quite difficult. My favorite radio station (aside from WCPR of course), WCBS-FM, will host a live broadcast from the festival stage on the evening of the 17th. For those with a more modern taste in music, WKTU will broadcast from the feast on Tuesday afternoon, and Z100 will do the same on the 23rd. The festival’s website has a full list of events.
I’m not going to recommend any particular food stands, cafes, or restaurants (yes, local businesses are still open during the festival). I’ll just say that I’ve never heard anyone complain about the food at San Gennaro.
I’ll end with a few fun facts about San Gennaro. The event was almost discontinued by ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani after shady mafia dealings were exposed in the mid-1990s. Since then, the event organizers have donated over $2 million to the community. There is also a similar one-day feast in the Bronx on the 19th.
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