Butler hears interest from organizers for 3 Italian-themed events
During a city council work session on Thursday evening, Oct. 10, Mayor Bob Dandoy revealed three groups are interested in holding Italian-themed events in Butler next year, all looking to fill the void left behind by the old Butler Italian Festival.
A professional event promoting agency — which the council declined to name due to active contract negotiations — is in talks to create an event which would serve as a successor to Butler’s previous Italian Festival, which ran until 2023.
While the promoter was not identified, Dandoy testified to their legitimacy, calling them a “very reputable person.”
This is in addition to the “Taste of Italy” crawl, which occurred this year on Aug. 24 — the day the Butler Italian Festival had been scheduled to take place. The same day, the Sons and Daughters of Italy hosted a parallel event.
Each event took place in different parts of Butler. The crawl was organized by the Totalus Cafe. Both parties have signaled their intentions to hold their events again in 2025, with the Sons and Daughters hoping to upgrade to a full-fledged festival.
Dandoy in a Friday conversation said the council would only choose one festival to move forward, but the crawl, which does not close the road, may continue, too.
Council member Don Shearer said the Totalus crawl, which ran along Jefferson Street, was an enormous success for the businesses that took part.
“The businesses raved about it,” said Shearer. “They loved it because it actually put people into their stores and drummed up business. They were all on board.”
A vacuum for Italian-themed events in Butler opened up this year, when the Butler Italian Festival planned for August was canceled due to disputes between the organizers and the city. The organizers have since announced on their website that the old Italian Festival has been canceled permanently.
Dandoy was delighted to announce the unidentified professional promoters were more willing to compromise than the organizers of the Butler Italian Festival.
“They said, ‘Oh, we can do that. I can do that. I can do that,’” Dandoy said of the promoters.
All three Italian-themed events, if approved, would take place at different times of the year and in different parts of Butler, with the city council working to avoid any conflicts. One council member said the Totalus contingent were content to move their event to another point in the summer and potentially rebrand.
The unidentified promoters applied to hold their festival in May, while the Sons and Daughters of Italy would hold their new Italian Festival on the same weekend as the old festival in late August.
The council did raise concerns about the potential overtime local police would rack up while working security for three different Italian festivals in Butler, as well as the potential impact of infrastructure improvements on Main Street.
“We do have projects that are going to be taking place on Main Street. We're going to be ripping up sidewalks,” Shearer said. “So there's a lot of these festivals that are going to be adjusting on the fly.”
According to Shearer, the anonymous promoter said he is willing to pay for 25% of police overtime pay for their event.
