Kenoshans celebrate 75 years of food, fun, fellowship at Mount Carmel Festival

The Columbus Park neighborhood was once Kenosha’s Little Italy.

“It was all Italians that lived in this neighborhood,” Kenosha native Tom Rizzo said. “I could probably go down each one of these homes and tell you which family lived in it.”

Rizzo is the longtime chairman of the Mount Carmel Festival, celebrating its 75 ^th Diamond Jubilee this weekend at Columbus Park.

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The three-day festival kicked off on Friday. It is famous for its old-fashioned, homemade spaghetti dinners, fried dough and fresh-baked Italian cookies.

“They have the best pizza here. The best Italian sausage here. And even the eggrolls are to die for and they’re not even Italian,” Kenosha native Rocco LaMacchia said.

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The Ladies Society of Mount Carmel made roughly 300 gallons of sauce and nearly 1,300 pounds of pasta.

The homemade Taralli and Genetti are always a hit.

“Saturday, they’ll be gone,” said Claudia Presta, a Kenosha native who began volunteering at the festival as a child.

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While Rizzo is in charge of the event – which also includes plenty of live music and games – he said it been a team effort putting the event on for 75 years.

“We are very blessed here at Mount Carmel,” Rizzo said. “We have outstanding volunteers and without them this would not happen.”

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