What to do and see during this year’s Italian Week festival

Montreal’s Italian Week festival is right around the corner.

The festival, on from Friday, Aug. 9 to Aug. 18, will take place at several venues in the Montreal area, including Notre-Dame-de- Grâce, Rivière-des-Prairies, LaSalle, StLéonard and Little Italy as well as in Laval.

This marks the 26th annual festival organized by the National Congress of Italian Canadians in Quebec.

The festival’s first edition took place in 1994 in Montreal North. At the time it was named Settimana Italiana, which — you guessed it — translates to Italian Week.

Italians are one of the largest cultural groups in Canada. According to the 2016 census, more than 1.5 million Canadians said they were of partial or full Italian descent, making up 4.3 per cent of the population.

Quebec has more than 320,000 people of Italian ancestry and more than 147,000 reside in Montreal, according to the same census.

“Montreal’s Italian Week aims to promote and bring to life Italian culture through the expressive and artistic forms that characterize it,” reads the festival’s website.

This year’s festival focuses on the region of Calabria, the “toe” of Italy’s boot-shaped peninsula.

Here are the events not to be missed during this year’s Italian Week:

Musical play: La Dolce Vita en Exil — Italian Week kicks off with a musical play about an Italian immigrant’s journey from Italy to Canada in the 1950s. The musical is presented and written by Tina Mancini, an Italian Montrealer. The Italian-Neapolitan play will be performed on Friday, Aug. 9 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 11 at 3 p.m. at Casa d’Italia.

Cent’anni exhibit: Order Sons of Italy — The Order Sons of Italy is a brotherhood for Italian Canadians and Italian Americans, founded in Montreal in 1919 but originally founded in New York City 14 years before. The exhibit celebrates the organization’s 100th anniversary and its history. It will be open from Aug. 9 to 23 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Casa d’Italia.

Festivities in N.D.G. and Montreal North: Did someone say Italian Week without mentioning soccer? Of course not. There will be a soccer tournament in N.D.G. at the corner of Oxford Ave. and Upper Lachine Rd. and in Montreal North at the corner of Gouin Blvd. and Ste-Gertrude St. during the day. The tournaments will be followed by a concert and a comedy show starting at 3 p.m. in N.D.G. and at 1 p.m. in Montreal North.

Fiat exhibition: The Fiat, Italy’s most popular macchina, has its own exhibit during the festival, which

Italian Week aims to promote and bring to life Italian culture through the expressive and artistic forms that characterize it.

will be travelling across Montreal throughout the week. You can catch the Fiat’s vintage models on different days starting in N.D.G. and Montreal North on Aug. 10, in Laval on Aug. 11, in LaSalle on Aug. 13, in St-Léonard on Aug. 15 and in Little Italy from Aug. 16 to 18. The times for each exhibit are available at www.italfestmtl.ca/calendar/. Tour of Nincheri’s artwork: Canadian-Italian artist Guido Nincheri’s work will be exhibited at the Château Dufresne Museum. Nincheri has designed interior frescoes of the Saint-Viateur d’Outremont Church and the Saint-Léon de Westmount Church. A guided tour for a reduced price will be available at the museum during Italy week.

For the full program visit: www. italfestmtl.ca/calendar/