Fisherman’s Feast of Boston

A traditional North end Italian feast. You can walk through the streets where vendors are selling food, t-​shirts, etc. They have really cool entertainment like singers, dancers, tribute doo-​wop show, and a grand procession of La Madonna Del Soccorso Di Sciacca. Food is great (mostly Italian food), parking is a problem (take the MBTA if you can), and wear comfortable shoes.

Why is this policeman band playing the same some over and over again? Why are there little girls chanting in Italian? One is suspended over the crowd from a wire. AND SO MANY DOLLA BILLS. On ribbons and banners. Being passed through the streets and wrapped around a statue of the Virgin Mary. I’m confused. But admittedly intrigued.
The Fisherman’s Feast is an interesting cultural festival that you should experience at least once in your life. There’s food and music and bursts of confetti fill the air (I don’t envy the street cleaners the next morning). But the repetitive, drawn-​out ceremony and crowded North End streets don’t make me yearn to return next year.
As with your typical North End festival, this Fishy Feast boasts the standard (overpriced) arancini/​pizza/​cannoli stands, some games for kids, and musical performances on the main stage. But if you want something unique, stick around for the closing ceremony. Sunday night is when the real action happens, as a statue of the Virgin Mary is processed through the streets of the North End.
The statue is hoisted up and carried by some large, polo-​wearing men who are accompanied by a band (playing the same song again and again and again). About an hour after commencing her journey in front of a church, Mary ends up in the middle of the festival where ribbons of money are rolled out of windows and wrapped around her. I’m not about to ask where these Italians obtained all the $ 1 bills, but those ribbons sure are long. The band’s still playing. Some other ceremonial happenings take place (an old woman needed to go touch the statue for some reason). It takes a while.
Then two girls in balconies on opposite sides of the street (lovingly called «side angels») begin chanting in Italian, complete with corresponding arm movements. Although we had no idea what they were saying, the «Marias» and «Reginas» made it pretty clear that Mary was the focus of their long, repetitive diatribes.
Now it’s time to fly! The band finally begins playing a different song as the smiling, air kiss-​blowing main angel appears on her balcony and is hoisted into the air on a wire. She dangles above the crowd and is slowly moved to a position in front of the statue, where she too (amidst even more confetti) speaks to her for a while in Italian. And that’s pretty much it!
I have to admit I was impressed by these girls’ memories, and they looked so happy and honored to be part of the ceremony (what little girl doesn’t want to dress up like an angel and fly, after all?). The North End locals really drive the festival; their immense pride and sense of community is palpable. For that reason alone I would recommend checking it out. The Italian food and funny dollar bill obsession also help.

It’s not much. They have festivals each weekend throughout the summer in the North End, and they’re all the same. They close down a couple streets, vendors try to rip you off selling stuff, and there’s some nice live music from on stage. The Fisherman’s Feast is the oldest of them all (going on 101 consecutive years now) and I went last Friday. Again, not too much going on — defintiely a festive atmosphere but not a lot to do. Some vendors selling food and garbage. A few rip-​off carnival games. The stage with the live music was the best thing — I like the easy listening music they were playing that night. Sunday night is when they do the big parade with the statue and have the angel come down, etc. Maybe that’s the big deal. But aside from that it’s really not worth the effort to go to.

If you are in the area, this is a fun street fair to see. Otherwise, I wouldn’t make a special trip. I had read about it on Unilocal,of course, and was all excited. to see it once I hit Boston. Alas, the fair was on a couple of blocks only and more disappointingly, the food sold was mediocre. I had fresh zeppole that were unfortunately cooked in stale oil (for the absolute BEST zeppole, go to the Hoboken Italian festival. The fried seafood there is also very fresh) and got me cranky until I got some gelato from a local café. My advice is to pay a little more, and stick to the marvelous restaurants in the North End. Daily Catch has fried calamari to rock your world, and Bova has these whoopie pies that are the size of salad plates (oh, yes!!!).

After having a beer at the Reef, Scotty B. and i decided to take a walk towards the North End… since neither one of us had been through there in a while.
We started to hear the sounds of trumpets in the distance… the trumpets were indeed coming from the North End. We excitedly walked quickly towards all the commotion.
We had just stumbled upon the «Fisherman’s Feast» The North End’s rendition of a time-​old Italian tradition.
So, here’s what happens.
One little angel girl speaks sicilian/​italian to another little angel girl on a balcony across the street. They say a lot… I think they have some sort of disagreement about what they should do with this crown.
It seemed that eventually the angel girls come to some sort of understanding and one of them flew from the roof over the crowd and decsended down over a giant crown. At that point I believe she put the little crown in the big crown and the crowd really seemed to love when she did that! And then the band played «When the saints go marching in» OVER AND OVER again!
So, I was told this all symbolizes the blessing of the fleet… best wishes for the fishermen out at sea.
Overall this was a pretty awesome event to stumble upon randomly