The Greater Patchogue Foundation will be hosting the 51st annual Italian Festival of Saint Liberata, an Italian feast down Main Street, celebrating Louis Lucian Giordano, the 2018 Italian-American of the Year, this Saturday, Sept. 8. Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce executive director David Kennedy said the festival, which is in its 11th year since its reinception, has great history in the village. 

In the 1940s and 1950s, a large volume of Italians settled in the Waverly Avenue area and began to celebrate with a festival honoring Saint Liberata, the patron saint of the village of Pizzone, Italy. Back in the day, Mayor Paul Pontieri said, the Italians gathered at a church where Walgreens now sits for a reception and then made their way to the fields, where the Fifth Precinct currently sits, to celebrate with a feast.