We've had an ethnic festival for the Greeks and the Lebanese, so now I guess it's about time to have one for the Italians too. Like both the Greek Fest and Lebanese Festival, Italian Week (technically just a weekend) is a fundraiser. However, unlike both of the Fests, this fundraiser is for the new Italian Cultural Centre rather than a nearby Orthodox Church. Either because of this, or simply by chance, a few differences existed between Italian Week and the Greek and Lebanese festivals.
While Italian Week featured the obligatory fast-food quality ethnic cuisine that all cultural festivals in Halifax seem to have, thankfully the organizers decided to leave out the "talent show" (think: twelve year old girls "singing"/hurting my ears) and children's games. This made for a much quieter environment and freed up time and room for more adult-oriented activities like classic Frederico Fellini film showings, wine tasting lessons, and an Italian language class.
After leaving the "festival" (I'm not really sure yet as to what I should classify it) I noticed that a "band" of sorts had decided to protest in front of the centre. Actually, I'm also not sure if they were protesting, but you can hardly call what they were doing "playing". Furthermore, why else would they be standing right in front of the entrance, annoying everyone/blocking the way, unless they had something personal against Italy?
Surprisingly, the head organizer decided not to try to shoo them away, but instead was begging them to come inside the gate and play. After some disorganized discussion amongst the group, that was in keeping with its disorganized playing and appearance, the band members relented and started torturing their instruments inside the gate instead. It was at this point that I took my leave.
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