Italian Day Fest @Commercial Dr
Italian Day@Commercial Dr
Hundreds of thousands of people will be enjoying gelato,
drinking espresso and listening to opera in East Vancouver today.
Commercial Drive has always been at the heart of Vancouver’s Italian community, but expect even more red, white and green along the street today.
Carmen D’Onofrio with the festival says it’s a huge day for the neighbourhood to celebrate Italian culture, but also financially as well with many local stores having their busiest day.
“[You have] restaurants that have the extension of the patio into the street. You’ve got clothing stores and some boutique shops that have their biggest day of the year; bigger than Christmas so obviously the economic spin off is very very high.”
D’Onofrio says the day has come a long ways since its humble roots in 2009. “At first it was something new that we introduced and people thought it was a lot of work, is it going to be successful? Now people are counting down to when Italian Day is. The merchants have a lot of fun with it, do well obviously, and are able to get in touch with their customers. [It] brings people down here.”
Over 350,000 people took in the sights and sound of Italian Day last year.
The event is organized by the Italian Day Festival Society in conjunction with The Commercial Drive Business Society and collaborating partner, The Italian Cultural Centre (Il Centro); and is dependent upon the invaluable support of our sponsors, community businesses and the City of Vancouver without whom the event would not be possible. Each year the event grows, along with attendance numbers, participating businesses, media interest and an overwhelmingly positive event perception. With over 350,000 estimated attendees in 2014, Italian Day on The Drive has become Vancouver’s largest and most celebrated cultural street festival of its kind.
義大利的羅馬聖戰士
Italian Day is located on Commercial Drive, spanning from
Venables St to Grandview Cut.
The festival runs from Sunday June 14, 2015
from 12:00pm-8:00pm.
2015 06 14@ Vancouver,BC Canada
info from
http://www.news1130.com/2015/06/14/italian-day-festival-on-commercial-drive/