SEA ISLE CITY – Sea Isle City’s 23rd Annual Columbus Day Parade and Italian Festival will take place on Oct. 12, sponsored by Mayor Leonard Desiderio and his family. Both events will celebrate Sea Isle’s rich Italian heritage while delighting people of all ages with live music and other entertainment.
The Columbus Day Parade will begin at 2:00 p.m. in front of the Sea Isle City Italian American Club on JFK Boulevard (adjacent to the Sea Isle Bridge). The parade will feature the Ocean City High School Marching Band as well as numerous representatives of the Cape May County Sheriff’s Department, including Dodge the Horse, the County’s Law Enforcement Explorers, McGruff the Crime Dog and Eddie the Eagle. The parade will also feature fire engines and other rescue vehicles, eye-catching floats, representatives from local businesses and civic organizations, members of Sea Isle’s Italian American Club, County and Municipal dignitaries, Sea Isle’s 2013 “Italian Royal Family,” Cape May County’s Miss Cape Resort Ashlyn Laveson, Miss Outstanding Teen Megan Keenan, Miss Pre-Teen Princess Gabriella DiMarco and Miss Tiny Princess Noley Schenck, and many others participants.
The parade will run east along JFK Boulevard, turn right onto Landis Avenue, and continue south on Landis until culminating at 63rd Street, where the City’s Italian Festival will be in full swing at KIX-McNutleys.
Sea Isle’s Italian Festival, which will take place between 10:00 a.m. and Dusk, promises to be bigger and better than ever, thanks to an Italian Vendors Market with craft and specialty merchandise, delicious Italian delicacies, a display by The Cento Food Corporation, free raffles, and an extensive line-up of entertainment, including musical performances by American Idol finalist Christian Foti, 2013 Sea Isle City’s Got Talent winner Mara Justine, opera singer Joe Avanzato and other entertainers.
The festival will also include a display by the Cape May County Zoo, a “Pink Cannoli” booth that will raise funds for breast cancer research and remind festival-goers that October is National Breast Cancer Month, and an award ceremony that will honor Sea Isle’s 2013 Italian Royal Family (including the Italian-American Man and Woman of the Year and the Italian Prince, Princess and Queen).
Later in the day, the Italian Festival’s annual Cannoli Eating Contest will delight spectators under the music tent. As its name suggests, this competition features contestants eating sizable quantities of the popular confection as quickly as possible. In the end, the contender who consumes the most cannolis in the shortest amount of time will win a trophy and be declared “The Promo Cannoli Eating Champion.”
Anyone interested in appearing in Sea Isle City’s 2013 Columbus Day Parade, being a merchandise or food vendor at the Italian Festival or competing in the annual Cannoli Eating Contest can download an application form at www.kixmcnutleys.com. For additional information, email kixfestival@gmail.com or phone (609) 263-4461, extension 1230.