On Saturday, September 14, the Glassboro community gathered together in Glassboro Town Square and Rowan Boulevard for St. Anthony’s annual Italian Heritage Festival. The event was held all day between the hours of 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Food trucks lined Rowan Boulevard, as families and Rowan students roamed freely to sample all the delicious food offered. Everything from lunch to dinner, and even dessert was served to those who attended.

Festival-goers could participate in carnival games such as Fat Cats, where players throw balls to knock over cats lined up on a shelf to win prizes, or Crazy Cans, where players throw bean bags at a pyramid of stacked cans to win a plushie toy. There was even an area safely caged where people could throw axes at a target. Alongside all the fun, the festival provided a charging station for cell phones.

A band played on stage and performed covers of hit songs. Festival-goers enjoyed dancing to the music or even setting up lawn chairs to listen.

Lined along Glassboro Town Square, vendors set up camp selling various goods to festival-goers. One vendor, Kathleen Becker, works in Glassboro and set up a station for Paparazzi Jewelry, which sells lead and nickel-free jewelry products for only five dollars. 

“This is an annual event, I think they’ve been doing it for about five or seven years now, but this is my first year doing the festival,” says Becker. 

Becker enjoyed the festival and thinks that she will set up shop for Paparazzi Jewelry again for future festivals. “It was a great turnout and a good experience.”

Kelsey McLaughlin, a sophomore at Rowan attended the event along with some of her friends. “I live in 114 Victoria Street, so we saw it going on and decided to take a look.” 

This was McLaughlin’s first time attending the festival and thinks she would be interested in going again next year.

“It’s very nice, the community makes it very homey and it’s a cool thing for students to take part in,” she said.

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