Proud grandfather John Balchune takes a cellphone photo of his grandaughters Harlee Chesniak, 2, left, and Isabella Rycheleski, 8, at they pose with the Tomato Festival mascot.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo kicked off the Tomato Festival with committee members along with Pittston City Police Chief Neil Murphy, Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown (right of Chief Murphy), and Pittston City controller Chris Latona (far right).
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Phyllis Hopkins at the microphone along with Phyllis Hopkins Trio bandmate Julio Capriari on drums, rock out on Thursday evening at the Tomato Festival.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
City of Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo and Pittston’s Main Street manager Mary Kroptavich pose with the offical mascot of the annual Pittston Tomato Festival prior to the festivities kicking off at 5:30 p.m., Thursday evening. Lombardo serves at the festival chairman.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Diane Charge helps her grandaughter, six-year-old Addisyn Kaspriski, where to place raffle tickest at the Blue Chip Animal Rescue stand at the Pittston Tomato Festival Thursday evening.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
PITTSTON — The Tomato Capital lit up on Thursday night for an annual tradition that had to take a year off. But the Pittston Tomato Festival returned in all its glory, bringing a night of food and fun to the city.
The festival officially kicked off on Thursday evening with comments from Mayor Michael Lombardo, who was clearly excited to get the event going again.
“I certainly want to welcome everybody back; last year was a rough year,” he said. “I think we all stuck together and got through it; I know some people suffered terrible losses and our hearts go out to them.”
Lombardo encouraged safety at the event, saying that there were a number of hand sanitizing stations around the festival.
Lombardo was joined on the festival stage by a number of people who were involved with the planning of the festival, whom Lombardo thanked along with the events’ sponsors.
“These events don’t happen without hard work,” he said. “I’ve been saying a lot lately that it’s easy to look good when you’re surrounded by ‘great,’ and behind me is a lot of ‘great.’”
Lombardo took a second to acknowledge who he called the “star of the show” — Nova, the pit bull recovered by Pittston Police earlier this month after being found abandoned and horrifically neglected.
Nova was discovered severely underweight, but on Thursday night, Nova looked every bit a healthier, happier pup. She has since been taken in by the city’s police department, who previously told reporters that they plan to use her as a therapy dog. When the dog was introduced, cheers of “Nova!” went up from the crowd.
Lombardo was joined on stage by Wilkes-Barre’s mayor, George Brown, who Lombardo praised along with other local mayors who came together in response to the pandemic. Lombardo said it’s the first time in a “long, long, long time” that all the mayors are working together.
Brown said he plans to borrow some ideas from Pittston.
“I’m here tonight because I heard what a great job everybody does, so I wanted to see if we could copy this for the city of Wilkes-Barre,” before going on to say that the “food looks great.”
A great number of people came to the festival on Thursday evening, including Rose Butera, of Pittston, who agreed with Brown’s assessment that the food looked great. Butera said she’s been coming to the festival every year, adding that it’s great to be able to do it again.
“It feels wonderful; it feels great to be out with people and enjoy some good food,” she said, adding that she got a chicken calabrese hoagie from Rikasa.
She encouraged everyone to get to the festival at some point this weekend to enjoy some of the food for themselves.
The festival runs until Sunday, and it’ll be open from 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. For more information, including about Saturday’s parade and 5k race, go to pittstontomatofestival.com.
