With more than 26 million people of Italian heritage living in the United States, it's easy to find an Italian heritage festival. Many festivals coincide with Columbus Day and
National Italian American Heritage month in October but there are spring and summer Italian festivals, too.
If you can't make it to a festival, you can still visit Little Italy in many North American cities. Here are top places to find Italy in North America.
Here are top Italian festivals in the United States, ordered by month, from March through October.
March: St. Joseph's Day is celebrated in New Orleans in early March. There's a parade put on by the Italian-American Marching Club and St. Joseph's altars are erected around the city.
May: Memphis Italian Festival is usually the last weekend of May in Memphis, Tennessee
June: The North Beach festival, usually the second weekend of June in San Francisco, is known as the
oldest urban street fair in the country. North Beach is San Francisco's Italian neighborhood.
Summer: New York's Little Italy holds a festival every weekend during summer with sidewalk cafes and special events.
July: Chicago's Venetian Night and boat parade is modeled after boat parades in Venice, Italy.
August: Feast of the Assumption, August 15, is a big holiday in Italy. Cleveland, Ohio, celebrates Feast of the Assumption with a festival.
September: San Gennaro is a 10-day festival in New York City's Little Italy.
September: Feast of San Gennaro is celebrated in Los Angeles with a weekend festival in late September.
October: San Francisco's Italian Heritage Parade, held in North Beach on Columbus Day, has been going on since 1868 and is nation's oldest Italian Heritage Parade.
October: Columbus Italian Festival is held in Columbus, Ohio, on Columbus Day weekend.
October: New York City holds an annual Columbus Day parade.
Italian film festivals are held throughout the year both in the United States and other parts of the world. Here are top Italian film festivals outside Italy.
