The Italian Festival Gets a New Name
Eric Ortner
North Buffalo Rocket / West Side TimesApril 2000: As summer quickly approaches, thoughts in North Buffalo begin to turn to the Greater Buffalo Italian Heritage and Food Festival. The dates for this year's Italian Fest have been scheduled for July 12 through July 16 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. There will be a new sponsor for this year's event, as Sorrento Lactalis, Inc., makers of Sorrento Cheese are giving it their support. An announcement about their sponsorship and a new title for the Italian Festival, is expected to be made today at 2 p.m. The official title of the Italian Fest will now be The Greater Buffalo Sorrento Cheese Italian Heritage Festival.
The organizers boast that the festival will attract roughly 750,000 visitors to North Buffalo during its 5-day run. However, there is a growing opposition to the event. Last summer, community activist Bill Buyers began to wage a campaign against it. With this in mind, the organizers are working to improve the image and atmosphere of the Italian Heritage Festival.
Mr. Buyers and many of his supporters started walking the streets with a petition to show opposition to the festival. Throughout late summer and fall of 1999 there were frequent public meetings on the subject. Now in the spring of 2000, Mr. Buyers is once again bringing the issue to the forefront. On Wednesday, March 29th he presided over a meeting of 27 people, and explained the actions he and attorney Patrick W. H. Wesp were taking. He said, "Together we can change this festival, or carnival. This is not a Italian Festival, it is a street carnival."
Patrick W. H. Wesp, an Attorney at Law from Hughes and Wesp, is working pro bono in an attempt to eliminate the five day Italian Heritage Festival as it currently exists. He has issued a statement that says:
Our group has contacted the Buffalo Office of the New York State Attorney General and provided them with a number of documents. We have asked them to determine whether the "Italian Festival" has violated either the terms of their Certificate of Incorporation or the Not For Profit Law. We pointed out that the "Italian Festival's" Certificate of Incorporation specifically prohibits its members, directors or officers from "taking pecuniary profit or financial gain" in the course of the advancement of Festival Activities.Despite this, one of the 9 Festival corporate directors signed a contract with the Festival on behalf of Amusements of Buffalo, Inc.. That contract granted Amusements of Buffalo, Inc. the exclusive option to have rides at the festival. In addition to keeping 75% of the ride fares, the amusement company is granted the right to purchase 50 stand sites at a rate at least $100 per site below what other merchants on Hertel Avenue pay or what charities pay for a stand site. In return, the nine member Festival Committee is given 15,000 tickets and 500 matinee ride bracelets, worth a $16,250 total to do with as they like.
The board of directors for the Italian Festival believes that they aren't doing anything illegal. Ronald A. Carnevale is one of the three representatives on the Italian Festival Board of Directors from the West Side Business and Tax Payers Association. When Mr. Carnevale was approached on the subject, he commented that the board had nothing to hide and that the Italian Festival's books were open for review.
Mark Longo, who is one of the three Festival Board of Directors appointed by the Hertel North Buffalo Business Association, is also an attorney. He further clarified the board of director's position when he said, "In terms of their (Buyers/Wesp) concerns my understanding is a board member's relative owns the amusements."
However, he was willing to further challenge these serious allegations. Mr. Longo said, "First of all there is full disclosure to the board. There was a proper vote without the alleged board member."
Mr. Longo went on to say, "Most importantly, Amusements of Buffalo provides to the three organizations, safe and clean rides. In the ten years that it has been on Hertel Avenue there have been no injuries to the patrons or no claims regarding any of the rides. We endeavored to bid out this business. However, there have been no willing vendors to provide similar benefits to the three organizations that Amusements of Buffalo does.
There are allegations that there are some tickets that are given away free. Our understanding is that the tickets are given away to less fortunate children of the community as well as to less fortunate members of community organizations that would not be able to afford to go to the rides of the festival otherwise. That decision to give away a certain number of free tickets to the rides was made by the board of directors.
Further in terms of the profiteering and the price per rent; the rent per vendor is established by the Board of Directors. The price per booth is the same for every vendor on the strip, as part of the agreement with Amusements of Buffalo. They are provided additional spaces that they charge to their vendors in which the board receives a portion of the fee."
Despite the Board of Directors best intentions, many North Buffalo residents and business owners are not pleased with the festival. They find it to be a tremendous inconvenience. Some believe that the Italian Heritage Festival attracts crime. Many residents are affected adversely because they can't find parking spots anywhere near their homes for the duration of the extravaganza. Some neighbors also have complaints over the loud music that emanates from the bandstands. Other people that live and work near the festival grumble that there is a residual smell from rotting food which lasts long after the festival leaves. A few parties have voiced concerns that the Italian Heritage Festival no longer lives up to its name. They feel the Festival is more of a carnival than a celebration of Italian lineage.
Actually, the people involved in the planning of the festival feel that way as well. Roberta Mustachia, the current president of the Hertel North Buffalo Business Association commented, "We want it to be a real Italian Heritage Festival. We want more revenue from the festival to come into this neighborhood. The majority of the profits go out."
Still, Roberta believes there are some benefits from the Italian Festival being located in North Buffalo. "People may not realize that the wide sidewalks on Hertel Avenue are plowed by Italian Festival Money. The free parking lots are plowed and maintained as well. The Community Center funds a lot of senior programming with Italian Festival money. There is money coming into the community, it's just that there's a lot of it going out. Most of the businesses on Hertel lose money during the Italian Festival, unless they have a booth. Not everyone can staff a booth five days a week 10 hours a day. So right now the only compensation is to have our sidewalks plowed."
However, members of the Hertel North Buffalo Business and Tax Payers Association are working along with Sorrento Cheese to help improve the festival. A new cultural committee is seeking volunteers who can exhibit and demonstrate Italian arts, crafts, and music for a new addition to the festival called the Cultural Corridor where festival goers can sit and enjoy entertainers and demonstrators in a relaxing setting.
"We know there are talented people out there who can contribute folklore and demonstrate talents that they can share with our community," Mr. Longo said. He continued, "To achieve our goals this summer we have instituted a number of things. They include a Public relations specialist, a certified public accountant, and a scholarship fund for Italian-Americans. We have also created a web site that will allow vendors both on Hertel Avenue and elsewhere to create a page at a minimal cost to sell their goods."
Despite the efforts to improve the festival and new sponsorship by Sorrento Cheese, Bill Buyers remains quite confident that his group is going to shake things up. He said, "I wouldn't count on a five day festival this year."
