Italy-themed crawl coming to Main Street on Saturday
Plans are in place to bring Italian tastes and culture to Butler’s Main Street on Saturday, Aug. 24, through the cooperation of a few dozen downtown businesses.
The Taste of Italy Crawl was organized by Totalus Cafe after the Butler Italian Fest, which was initially scheduled to take place this weekend, was canceled. Gretchen Heavner, co-owner of Totalus, said the organizers got more than 35 businesses and vendors to participate, which will each be listed on a passport that will be available at Totalus.
The crawl is scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. Totalus is located at 132 E. Jefferson St., Butler.
While the event won’t be a street fair, people can go to each of the participating businesses to get some kind of Italian-themed food, drink or merchandise. Once people get each location marked in their passport, they can return it to Totalus for a special pin and to be entered into a raffle for a gift basket for the Penn Theater.
In addition to foods, some businesses are offering special promotions, for example, the Penn Theater is screening “The Godfather” at 7 p.m. Additionally, there will be live music and children’s activities available in locations like Butler’s Grand Ballroom and Butler Brew Works.
Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy said he is happy to see downtown businesses and organizations start an event to not only highlight Italian culture, but give people a reason to visit Main Street.
“The idea that it is bringing people right into the stores where each of the stores have their own little thing, I think it's really wonderful,” he said. “It reminds me of Small Business Saturday, where people have to go into the store to partake in the festival.”
Totalus has organized other events encouraging participants to go from business to business for a special occasion, Easter and Halloween, for example. Heavner said she and Totalus co-owner Kayla Fleming saw an opportunity to bring the businesses together after the Italian festival was called off.
“As soon as we heard it was canceled, we thought, ‘We have to do something,’” Heavner said.
For more information on the Taste of Italy Crawl, visit its Facebook event page or call Totalus at 724-841-0506.
