Italian Street Festa to be Fabiola’s

With a family history synonymous with Sydney’s ‘Little Italy’, Fabiola Pellegrino is one of the faces of next Sunday’s Norton St Italian Festa in Leichhardt.

Ms Pellegrino not only works at Norton St’s Cesare’s No Name Family Restaurant, but also performs an integral role in Fools in Progress – a theatrical group preparing to perform a traditional Italian Commedia dell’Arte street show at the Festa.

Characterised by masks and fancy costuming, the group will reprise the spectacle of 16th century Italian theatre. Ms Pellegrino will play two different characters on the day: servants Colombina and Zanni.

“We’ve been trained by an Italian father to perform authentic Commedia dell’Arte,” Ms Pellegrino said. “It’s a great way for the community to get involved with some live street theatre, in the way it was presented many centuries ago.

“That’s one big part of the day.”

Ms Pelegrino is the granddaughter of of Cesare Masci, an Italian who migrated to Australia in the 1950s. He opened Cesare’s No Name Family Restaurant – one of the many successful traditional Italian restaurants on Norton St.

Ms Pellegrino said next Sunday’s community event is about “getting in touch with our roots again.”

“It’s very important,” she said. “The likes of my grandfather migrated to Australia and basically started cooking for people.

“It’s nice that it’s coming back through our generation. The locals are taking part in it as well … I think that’s important.”

This year’s Norton St Italian Festa coincides with Grandparents Day, and presents the opportunity for the Leichhardt community to band together with family. Event producer Patrick O’Reilly said this year’s Festa will be “50 per cent bigger than last year.”

“It’s a real change,” he said. “It really is bringing it back to the whole Italian essence of the Festa.

“There’s a greater variety of stalls in terms of the product, lots of beautiful Italian handcraft and leather goods, clothing … it’s just fantastic from that side. There’s a good 20 more food stalls than last year.”

The event on October 28 will be celebrating its 26th anniversary, and the day’s festivities will be centred at Pioneers Memorial Park on Norton St.