OLEAN — Music from the Beach Boys, Chicago and Taylor Swift will provide a rock soundtrack to the 42nd annual St. John’s Italian Festival.
With hot meatball sandwiches, cold beer, live music, bocce tournaments and raffles, St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church’s annual festival and fundraiser has provided North Olean community members with a fun summer event for more than 40 years and will be held Saturday, July 27, from noon to 10 p.m.
“Everything is going well, we just need to wait for the weather,” event chairman John Baglione told the Times-Herald. “Everyone is on board. We’ve had great participants, great volunteers, a great chairman who’s organized and put this event together, so we’re ready to go.”
One of the biggest selling points of this year’s festival is the live music lineup. To ensure there’s something for everyone, local band Larry Lewicki Band will kick off the music at noon, followed by All About the Swifties: A Taylor Swift Tribute at 2pm, The Beach Boys paying tribute to the Beach Party Boys at 4pm, and Chicago tribute band Chicago Transit at 7pm. Plus, DJ Gary Hendryx will be performing throughout the day.
“We’re excited about the caliber and diversity of entertainment we’re bringing to the table,” said Steve Plesac, who helped book the group performing for the night. “They’re all really top-notch entertainers, and the audience is going to enjoy an exciting and fun show.”
“All About the Swifties” features Carla Sacco, who will capture the spirit and energy of Swift in her performance. A professional tribute artist and recording artist, Sacco has traveled the world and her infectious smile and soaring voice make her a true pop star. Attendees will have a blast listening to all their favorite Swift songs.
Now in their 10th year on the road, the Beach Party Boys have been described as “the ultimate beach party come true.” Their show is fast-paced, interactive and focused on nostalgia, evoking the transistor radio-toting teenage years of the ’60s. The band has performed in 25 Beach Boys tribute concerts, including sharing the stage with the real Beach Boys at a show in Montreal, Canada.
Chicago Transit was one of the first Chicago tribute bands in the world, formed in the early 90s, and is still the longest-running and only band with four lead vocalists just like the real Chicago. The band, with a three-piece horn section, four-piece rhythm section and five vocalists, can cover early and later classics and are credited by the real band themselves.
Pressac said he has booked similar tribute shows for the festival in past decades, but as the festival has changed over the years, so has the entertainment. He hadn’t helped with music bookings for a long time, but Baglione contacted him this year, Pressac said.
“I think the entertainment we’re providing is really going to wow people,” he said. “They’re going to be very captivating and engaging for the audience, and we’re expecting a good turnout all day.”
A man plays bocce during the former St. John’s Festival in Olean. This year’s festival is scheduled for Saturday, July 27.
File
Besides the entertainment, attendees will be served a number of Italian dishes, including meatball sandwiches, Italian sausage with peppers and onions, beans and greens, ziti with broccoli, pasta e fagioli, spiedi, cannoli, etc. Other menu items include pizza, hot dogs, fried bread, ice cream and a bake sale.
“We’re coming back with a lot of Italian dishes that we weren’t able to offer last year because we didn’t have the expertise,” Baglione said, “but we’ve learned how to make them over the course of this year.”
In addition to food, there will also be a $20,000 cash prize. Tickets cost $100 each and offer a chance to win one $2,000 ticket, three $1,000 tickets, six $500 tickets and ten $200 tickets.
“That will be announced Saturday night around 8 or 8:30,” Baglione said, “and of course you don’t have to be there to win.”
In between munching on food and soaking up the music, festival-goers can take part in a variety of activities: In addition to basket raffles, games of chance and raffles with the chance to win larger items, Baglione said they’re planning both bocce and cornhole tournaments.
“I thought the half of the group that doesn’t play bocce might be interested in cornhole,” he said.
Baglione also said that there will be plenty of free games for children, as well as bounce houses. “If the kids are happy and the parents are happy, we’re happy,” he added.
After canceling the event for several years during the pandemic, the committee is looking to return the festival to its decades-old heyday, Baglione said, but scheduling with other events in the area and recent news from the Diocese of Buffalo about possible parish mergers and closures have presented challenges.
“We’ve been planning this for seven months, since the beginning of January,” he said. “We got together immediately after it was announced and voted with all the chairs to see if we still wanted to do this.”
At the time, the roughly 20 committee chairs were divided on whether to continue with the festival, but Baglione said the committee chairs then visited the volunteer groups to ask for further input and comments about continuing with the festival, and after a week they all agreed.
“We’re bringing back great music, Italian food and everything,” he added. “We’re here and we’re alive and well, so come join us, have a drink, eat something, laugh, share memories and have a good time.”
