Little Italy Festival

Clinton's annual Little Italy Festival is Labor Day Weekend (29 August through 1 September).

Start your exploration of Italian-American culture in west central Indiana right downtown in this Vermillion County town. You'll find Italian food, bocce ball, grape stomping, a unique wine garden, five different museums, a train depot, a coal depot, Italian market, wine museum and you can tour an Italian-American house of the early 20th century.

Hours are "after the parade" (the parade starts at 6 p.m.) until 11 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, and 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday.

New this year is a Spaghetti Sauce Cookoff on 30 August. All sauces must be cooked on site -- and out in the open -- and (just in case you were wondering) the rules state that no contestant may discharge firearms or use any pyrotechnics or explosives at the Spaghetti Sauce Cook-Off. (Doesn't say anything about the spectators, though. Hmmmmmm.)

Indiana's International Festivals

Major thanks to the F.C. Tucker Company of Indianapolis for publishing a brochure the Nationalities Council of Indiana has been trying to get funded and printed for decades! "International Festivals", mailed to its extensive list this week, includes details on sixteen different cultural celebrations around the state, from "Taste of Noble County Ethnic Festival" on 17 May in Ligonier to our very own International Festival 20-23 November in Indianapolis (all the festivals -- and more -- are on our calendar). As it says in the brochure, "We embrace our mixture of heritages and ethnicities with annual city festivals that feature crafts, entertainment, demonstrations, parades, and, most of all, food (because Hoosiers have never met a cuisine that wasn't worth celebrating!)." Next time you see a Tucker agent, say thanks!

Festivals included (in chronological order): Taste of Noble County Ethnic Festival (17 May), Dragons on the Ohio (6-7 June), Indiana Highland Games (14 June), International Festival of Arts and Culture (14 June), Oldenburg Freudenfest (18-19 June), Middle Eastern Festival (18-20 June), Swiss Days (24-26 July), Pierogi Festival (25-27 July), Jasper Strassenfest (31 July-3 August), Schweizer Fest (4-10 August), Swiss Wine Festival (21-24 August), Little Italy Festival (29 August-1 September), Greek Festival (5-6 September), Columbus Scottish Festival (13-14 September), Seymour Oktoberfest (2-4 October) and Indy's International Festival (20-23 November). Of course, there are many more ethnic festivals than these in Indiana, but this brochure is a great start!)

Clinton's Little Italy Festival is Labor Day Weekend

The "Little Italy Festival." in downtown Clinton has filled Labor Day Weekend since 1966. Hours on Friday (31 August) are 5-11 p.m., on Saturday and Sunday (1-2 September) 11 a.m.-11 p.m., and on Monday (3 September), 11 a.m.-9 p.m. If you'd like more information, contact Nancy Dal Sasso, 765:832-7254.

Highlights: parade, on-stage entertainment, carnival rides and games, spaghetti-eating contest; tours of 1904 C&EI passenger depot (houses both a railway museum and one of the few coal museums in the nation, with its full-scale mine walk-through and vintage film of mule-powered mining); open-air shuttle to picturesque Ninth Street 'Little Italy' to visit a 1924 Italian home, learn old-days' winemaking, and purchase unique goods at the Italian store.