MILWAUKEE — The organizers of Milwaukee's Festa Italiana announced Tuesday that the festival is back on for 2022, after they initially said it was canceled.
Organizers said it was not financially possible to hold the festival at its usual spot at Henry Maier Festival Park. Instead the Italian heritage festival will be held outside the Italian Community Center, at 631 E. Chicago St. It is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25.
The president of the center's Board of Directors, Rose Anne Ceraso Fritchie, said during a press conference on Tuesday that "we are taking it one year at a time."
WATCH: Organizers discuss the details
This year's version of the festival will still have food, drink, and entertainment. But it will not have the scale of previous years.
"It will be much smaller and it will be much more intimate," said Fritchie.
Organizers canceled the festival in 2020 and 2021 due to constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fritchie apologized about their initial announcement that the festival was canceled this year. "We took a lot of heat for it. I can't tell you how many phone calls we got," said Fritchie. "Believe me we got an ear-full."
The festival was first held in 1978.
