<body><div>COLLINSVILLE — The Collinsville Chamber of Commerce hosted its 41st annual Italian Fest, with the gracious help of well over 100 volunteers to help visitors celebrate everything Italian.The 2024 Italian Fest was held this past weekend in Uptown Collinsville to celebrate the City’s rich Italian heritage and tradition. The two-day event attracted thousands to the area to enjoy family fun, great food and live music. This year was record breaking, with over 50 vendors total, over 420 5k runners and more than 60 parade participants, per Chamber officials.The festive weekend held a parade, live music, a 5K, a bocce ball tournament, grape stomping contest and much more. Chamber Executive Director Katie Slimick discussed the tradition of the Italian Fest and what it means to the community of Collinsville. She stated that it started as a sidewalk sale in 1983 and then blossomed into a full blown street festival, the following year.“The Italian was put together as a fundraiser for civic groups in the community. Each food vendor was out supporting specific civic organizations, like the fire department, the Rotary, Knights of Columbus, the Shriners and Boy Scouts,” Slimick said.”“It kind of started as a fundraising opportunity for nonprofits and other businesses that are in the community. It just grew from there to organizations outside of Collinsville and then to the celebration of the City’s Italian heritage and families.”Slimick, along with Collinsville city officials and other city dignitaries welcomed visitors to the event. Collinsville Township Supervisor Derrick Cox, Pastor of Heights Church David Seaton, city council and district officials were all on stage. The Collinsville Fire and Police Departments along with board members and Fest Royalty.During the opening ceremony Cox introduced a few of 2024’s Fest Royalty, Little Miss Italian Fest, three year old Ava Hughes, Little Mr. Italian Fest Easton Dillard and Miss Italiano Stephanie Brant. The 2024 Italian Fest Pageant was held on Sep. 8 at Goshen Theatre, 114 West Main Street in Collinsville. The pageant was moved up this year to allow the winners time to get ready for the parade on Saturday, Sep. 21.Judges for this year’s competition included Christy McClusky, Illinois state level dance judge, Taylor Shine, mother of Landry Shine who is running for Miss Capital City in Springfield, Illinois and Annalyse Richter, 2024 Miss Madison County Fair Queen. Kara Gray served as the Pageant Director.According to Slimick there’s a different theme assigned every year and the theme for this year’s festival was Italian Films. “There are a lot of Italian movies that we all love on the committee, so we decided to do Italian films. The theme is really established for our parade and the parade floats go off of the theme,” Slimick said.“So you’ll see a lot of snippets from different movies in the floats this year. We have over 62 participants this year.”This year’s parade marshall was Collinsville’s 2023 Firefighter of the Year Award Winner, Lt. Kurt Litteken. Litteken has been with the Collinsville Fire Department for 17 years, and has a total of 24 years of experience in Fire and EMS. He also received the Firefighter Excellence Award for his efforts in pulling a citizen out of a burning building. In his spare time, he enjoys anything outdoors and spending time with family. Holy Cross Lutheran Church and School took home first place honors in the Parade Float Contest for their ‘Pompeii’ themed float. Polar Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning snagged second place for their ‘Rocky’ themed float while Discovery Family Church got third place for their representation of ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’.The Italian Fest is such a big deal in Collinsville, not only because of its rich Italian heritage, but because of its fundraising aspects and how much money is generated for all of the various organizations “We have school organizations out here, like the Rotary and other nonprofit organizations that do a lot of work with our City and scholarships for our students,” Slimick said. “It also brings a lot of outsiders to see what we do and what we have and show them what Collinsville is. Residents call it the ‘Class Reunion’ a lot of classes do their reunion at the Italian Fest.”I think the great food and music that we have. We usually have a great lineup every year, from start to finish, all day on both stages. We have a lot of activities for all ages, adults to children to come out and enjoy, and I think the free bounce house area helps with that too.There were approximately 59 vendors on site serving up food, fun and cold drinks, for adults as well as children. Participating vendors were promoting everything Italian from Cookbooks to Ravioli; beer tents to shaved ice; desserts to olive oil.Randle Jones, owner of Olivia’s Olive Oil, has been to several festivals, but this was his first-time as a vendor at the Italian Fest. Olivia’s Olive Oil is a three year old St. Louis based company that sells olive oil and Balsamic imported from Greece, Italy and Tunisia. According to Jones, he didn’t know anything about olive oil. He said it just kind of came to him and the more he invested in it the deeper he got, stating that olive oil and Balsamic has history.“Olivia’s my granddaughter, we just came across some good quality product, but it pretty much chose us,” Jones said. “We just want to share it with the world and make everything better, you know it’s good for health and we’re just trying to grow something, get something going for the family.”Alex Paz, local photographer and community treasure said that the Italian Fest brings the community together and it’s a yearly event the people enjoy. “The spirit of Italian Fest generates from everybody’s love for the community and it gives everybody something to attend and do together and just enjoy music, food and the full Italian gala,” Paz said. “You know there’s a lot of Italian heritage in Collinsville, so it gives them the chance to come out and show off their country’s colors.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4bdWzK_0vhlezzl00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4bdWzK_0vhlezzl00" width="865" height="1200" ><figcaption>Randle Jones, owner of Olivia’s Olive Oil was a first-time vendor at the Italian Fest, (Photo by Devese “Dee” Ursery,)</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2tueWU_0vhlezzl00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2tueWU_0vhlezzl00" width="1200" height="900" ><figcaption>Hundreds of visitors filled Main Street at the 41st celebration of the Italian Fest, (Photo by Devese “Dee” Ursery)</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1tTvcK_0vhlezzl00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1tTvcK_0vhlezzl00" width="1200" height="800" ><figcaption>Lt. Kurt Litteken, in the passenger seat of the fire engine was the Parade Grand Marshall for this year’s Italian Fest led&nbsp; by a group of volunteers. (Photo by Devese “Dee” Ursery)</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2cWfOi_0vhlezzl00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2cWfOi_0vhlezzl00" width="1200" height="900" ><figcaption>Officials from the Collinsville Community Unit School District 10, Collinsville Township, City Council, fire and police, Chamber of Commerce and Italian Fest Royalty were on stage for the Opening Ceremony, (Photo by Devese “Dee” Ursery)</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3pXqfh_0vhlezzl00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3pXqfh_0vhlezzl00" width="1200" height="1114" ><figcaption>ity Officials compete for the Grape Stomping Championship belt and bragging for the year during the Grape Stomping Contest at the 2024 Italian Fest, (Photo by Devese “Dee” Ursery)</figcaption></figure></div></body>

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Chamber secures Uptown for a weekend of Italian Fest fun

COLLINSVILLE — The Collinsville Chamber of Commerce hosted its 41st annual Italian Fest, with the gracious help of well over 100 volunteers to help visitors celebrate everything Italian. The 2024 Italian Fest was held this past weekend in Uptown Collinsville to celebrate the City’s rich Italian heritage and tradition....