89th Annual Feast of San Gennaro - Little Italy NYC

This annual feast is New York City's oldest, biggest and noisiest religious street festival - starting Thursday, September 10, continuing through Sunday, September 20, 2015. 

The Feast of San Gennaro opens every day at 11:30 a.m. and closes at 11:00 p.m. Sundays through Thursday's and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Free music and entertainment every night from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. as well as free demonstrations and lectures every afternoon between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. on the FESTIVAL STAGE located at the corner of Grand and Mott Streets. 

In the late 19th century, Italian immigration to New York City formed what is now known as Little Italy. It was a comforting safe haven for non-English speaking Italians who could keep their native tongue and customs alive with those close to them. 

Assimilation only occurred when the educated first- and second-generation Italian-Americans sought their American dream beyond their old Little Italy neighborhood, leaving its preservation and gentrification to the old-timers who could not keep the vibrancy of the neighborhood alive. 

Nowadays Little Italy is tired, rundown and overrun by encroaching neighborhoods.

The Feast of San Gennaro brings hope each year as it showcases the much-needed Italian restoration and preservation of this struggling old Italian neighborhood.

If you live or are visiting here, join us and support the old neighborhood by giving New York City's Little Italy the Italian cultural renaissance it so longs to preserve. 

More interesting tales to read here.