The Italian Heritage Festival is celebrating its 45th year in Buffalo with 29 of those years celebrated on Hertel Avenue.
The festival has become the second largest Italian street fest in the country. Thursday through Sunday thousands of people will enjoy local entertainment, Bocce, an Italian Idol contest and more.
The festival's spokesman Chef Marco said there's a lot of new things to experience this year.
"We have food truck alley which is on the Delaware side of Hertel, We also have a tribute to Sicily, we're going to have a cart there form 1890," said Chef Marco Sciortino. "We have puppet shows and we have grape stomping on the corner of Commonwealth and Hertel."
Chef Marco said there's also a cooking stage where you can watch chefs prepare the finest Italian cuisine.
Kids can enjoy rides and cheese building competitions, which are held everyday at 2 p.m.
"This is a heritage festival which is number one. In the Italian heritage we come together as family, we come together as friends," said Sciortino. "We have food. Food brings everyone together and that's number one at our festival."
The festival runs from Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.
