Gianluca Zammarelli, of Italy, will play the Italian bagpipes at the seventh annual Italian Festival in Fairfield.
/ KTVO's Kate Allt
FAIRFIELD, IOWA -- If you drive through Fairfield Saturday, you may not know if you're in Southeast Iowa, or Rome.
The square will be turned into an Italian piazza for the seventh annual Italian Street Festival, which is estimated to draw around 5,000 visitors.
Events will take place all day, starting with shows and lessons in Italian culture. At 5 p.m., festivities really kick off with Italian music, street art and, of course, Italian food.
"What we've done is lead with the food, because everybody likes Italian food, and then we go from there and share some of the parts about Italian culture that people didn't know about, said Dick DeAngelis, president of the Society of Fairfield Italian Americans. "We really want everyone to get to know Fairfield in one big night of celebration, and that's what we're doing by celebrating all things Italian."
A special feature at this year's festival is Gianluca Zammarelli, who traveled all the way from Italy to play the zampogna, or Italian bagpipes, for festival-goers. He will be joined by six other master zampognari players for the largest number of zampogna players in one place in the United States.
The festival is free, and for more information, visit the Italian Street Festival website.
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