The Pittston Tomato Festival and its parade are one of the highlights of summer. Sadly, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the festival was canceled this year.
Sunday Dispatch file photo
It’s a sad weekend for Greater Pittston, especially for the City of Pittston. Today would have been the last day of the Tomato Festival and what a few days it could have been.
Each year the Sunday Dispatch puts out a special Tomato Festival section chock full of information, including a map of the grounds and plenty of festival related articles. Over the past several years, I’ve been able to pen a special My Corner, Your Corner article leading into the edition. I’ve always used that column to talk about my own personal experiences at the festival and to address what was new for the year.
I’m happy to say, we are still printing a special edition and I was able to pen a few articles. I had the chance to speak to Maria Capolarella-Montante on the beginnings of the festival for she was on city council at the time.
In my interview by phone with Maria, you can feel the excitement in her voice when describing the initial year and the early days of the festival.
The City of Pittston had been going through tough time with industry leaving, abandon buildings either burning down or being razed, and to top it off, voter fraud was an issue. Pittston was essentially broken and had some serious public relations issues.
Enter the Tomato Festival.
The festival was one way that Pittston could change their image, it was a way to bring up moral amongst residents, and it needed that bump to get back on track.
In my mind, the Tomato Festival was the turning point for the city and when it became a success, it literally turned the town right around. It truly was the catalyst for new blood to run the town and a new era was ushered in.
By the mid-1990s, Michael Lombardo had enough of the city losing some of its precious landmarks, the American Theater in particular, to want him to run for mayor. The theater was demolished in 1993.
When I think of the American Theater, I think of so many great memories, the architecture, the history, the matinees, and so much more. The 1,972-seat capacity was actually larger than the F.M. Kirby Center.
The Tomato Festival has had such a successful run due to the drive of the originators like Kenny Scaz, P.J. Melvin, Anne Bradbury, the late Wil Toole, the late Paul McGarry, and the late Val D’Elia who came up with the concept of honoring the Pittston Tomato.
The festival eventually was taken over by a younger crew with the same love of Pittston like longstanding chair, Lori Nocito, who stepped down in 2019. Mayor Lombardo assumed the chair for 2020 but will have to wait one more year to put his leadership into action.
I’ll miss the entertainment where just two years ago we had the chance to see the late Jerry Hludzik perform with his brother-in-arms, Bill Kelly, for the last time before losing his battle to a degenerative brain disease.
That was a magical night and Jerry was so animated and full of life and I’m sad we will never see Jerry and Bill play together again. It’s an end of an era that was a part of my life since my teen years.
The festival committee has done so well in picking entertainment over the years and one thing Mayor Lombardo promises, the festival will be kicking it up a notch in the future. He tells me he’d love to bring in some nationally well-known acts from here on out.
Even though the entertainment isn’t the main function of the festival, it’s a large draw and the driving force in bringing people to Pittston.
We also know that the food is another large part of the event. You can find a variety of ethnic foods and desserts all over the festival. You can gain 5 pounds, just walking around and inhaling the aroma of all those great delights.
Let’s not forget the farmer’s market with Golomb’s Farm and Greenhouses and Brace’s Orchards the mainstay for decades.
There’s always room for the children too. Bouncy houses, face painting, balloon animals and games put smiles on children for years.
The festival dipped their toe with expanding the festival to a third tier behind the Pittston Memorial Library. The Slope Amphitheater is also located at this site were it’s been utilized for music and movies.
Mayor Lombardo is always thinking out of the box and may have something up his sleeve for even more expansion and possibly changing the layout of the festival grounds. He admits, from time-to-time, the festival flat lines and needs a refresher of sorts and he plans on making appropriate changes to refresh the 37-year-old festival.
By next year, the permanent stage on the second tier attached to the James Zarra Tomato Festival Building will be complete and utilized 100% going forward. That set up is equipped with dressing rooms, showers and a green room for artist’s comfort making it a great place for top-notch entertainment to feel at home.
Even though the fest is canceled, get set for the mayor and the festival committee to sit back and prepare for some big, wanted and needed changes for 2021.
As we, in our own way, grieve the loss of the 2020 festival, let’s look forward to next year and look forward to bigger and better days ahead.
Quote of the week
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
Thought of the week
“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” – Napoleon Hill
Bumper sticker
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
