Thousands celebrate history, culture at Facer Festival
Longtime residents say Facer Street used to be the tough end of St. Catharines.
That was years ago; the neighbourhood has changed. The toughest part now is finding somewhere to park during the Facer Festival.
Several thousand people swarmed the old area Monday when about a quarter-kilometre of the street was closed for the fourth annual celebration.
Sponsored by the Facer District Merchants and Residents Association, it bills itself as Niagara’s largest summer multicultural festival.
It’s a street that celebrates its heritage. They were selling Tshirts that read Straight Outta Facer Street and Loud and Proud on Facer, even a booked titled “Facer Street Poems” by Stan Skrzeszwski.
Derek Kedzierski runs St. Joseph Bakery on Facer. It was started by his grandparents 51 years ago, passed down to his parents Barbara and Joe and now it’s his.
“It’s not just a Polish neighbourhood, it’s a very unique neighbourhood for the city,” he said, shouting over the din from the crowd in the street.
“I went to a school that was across the street — it isn’t there any more — and we used to play Polish games in Italian, because all the kids in the neighbourhood were either Polish or Italian.
“And if you weren’t, you had to identify as one and play with them.”
Monday was all about community — perogies and cabbage rolls for sale, people opening refreshment stands in their driveways, a historical walking tour.
A booth showed old school photos from Prince of Wales school and there were bouncy castles set up for kids.
All a short walk from each other, there is the Canadian Polish Society, the Italian Café, a Ukranian church and a Mexican restaurant.
John Sariano brought out his accordion and some chairs in front of Angelo’s Perfect Shoe Repair, another longtime family business on Facer. He played for passersby while the owner, Angelo Paternostro, his wife Maria, and Gina Castellan kept him company in the shade.
Kedzierski, whose father helped start the festival four years ago, said the neighbourhood is diversifying without losing its community feeling.
“You’ve got roots from all over the world. You look today, we’re selling tamales, gelato, perogies — we’ve got everything … lots of personality.”
Cousins Frank Tota and Joe Gentile stopped in the middle of crowded Facer Street and remembered old times.
Tota has lived there for 65 years, Gentile for 52. They recalled growing up in the workingclass neighbourhood when it really was the tough part of town.
“People used to be scared to drive down here because if there were any problems anywhere else, you’d bring ’em down to Facer Street,” Gentile said with a laugh.
“We used to be the Facer Street Gang,” added Tota. “Oh, we were bad. Nobody used to walk here, they had to go through us. Permission.”
He still lives on Facer Street: “My father passed away and he said, ‘Son, don’t ever sell this house.’ So I sold my house and moved back.”
Now one daughter shares his house and another lives around the corner.
“Oh yeah, we’ll be here forever,” he said.