Holy Rosary Italian Street Festival

**Hammer** (0:00)
You're listening to The Hammer and Nigel Show.

**Nigel Jason** (0:02)
Good morning, my name is Nigel Jason Hammer right over there with a very special pair of in-studio guests. The Italian Street Festival, it's coming up next weekend. Look at the spread. Oh, sweet Jesus, look at all of this. We've got Lisa here, we've got Kay here, and if you're watching on the YouTube stream, this is just a sample, like a very small part of what you could experience at the Italian Street Festival.
Lisa, let me start with you here. Tell me, where is the Italian Street Festival? What's the best way to get down there next weekend?

**Lisa** (0:40)
It's at 520 Stevens Street, right across from Eli Lilly's. It's Stevens and E Street. The church has been there since 1902, when my parents, great-grandparents originated here in Indiana. They settled in that neighborhood.
I'm from a restaurant in that neighborhood, so I won't mention the name. It's on College. It's Irea's Restaurant.

**Nigel Jason** (1:06)
I won't mention it, but it's Irea's.

**Lisa** (1:08)
It's Irea's. And my mom used to live...

**Hammer** (1:11)
Our sauce tastes just like their sauce.

**Lisa** (1:13)
Yes, it's from their recipe.
My mom, they settled in the parking lot, actually. That was where the house of the two doubles were.

**Nigel Jason** (1:23)
So this is the same location it's been in, like, for years.

**Lisa** (1:26)
Yeah, 41 years. We're on 41

**Hammer** (1:29)
And what's really great, Lisa is modest about this, but you got to consider this, that you have roughly between Friday and Saturday. If the weather is good, we could have 25,000 guests because it's free and the city endorses it. And we got the Indy sign this year. I'm so excited about that, but she has to, with the 25 or so different items between the beer and the wine and all the food items, she's preparing and ordering and preparing and at temperature serving these folks.

**Nigel Jason** (2:08)
So we're talking booze, we're talking food, and there's live music, too, right?

**Lisa** (2:11)
We have music on Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 in the park. We have a large stage. It's up high, so people don't have to get close to see the bands. We have Trainwreck coming back this year on Saturday. We're excited to hear them.

**Nigel Jason** (2:25)
Joe Biden's coming? Trainwreck? That's fantastic. Well, this is the band Trainwreck.

**Lisa** (2:33)
They're got a holy name.

**Hammer** (2:35)
And in the middle of all that on Saturday, as part of Holy Rosary and what we've done historically, at 645, the Marian procession led by the Knights of Columbus and the Indianapolis Opera Company will lead a procession through the festival area. Everything goes down, all the music's turned off.
It's really kind of a beautiful... Oh, I bet, yeah... .attribute to the church and Holy Rosary. And it goes into our beautiful church, and Father Does a Mass. We're the only church in Indiana, I believe, that still does a mass in Latin. And so anyway, a big part of what we do with the Italian Street Festival annually is raise money so that we can support the church and the community that it serves.

**Lisa** (3:28)
Yeah, this is 30% of the church budget for the year. So it's a big entity to keep the church at night, be in that older building and keep it.

**Nigel Jason** (3:37)
I was going to ask, the money that is raised at this festival, it's not like you guys are going out to Vegas and blowing it here. It's all going back to the house, so to speak.

**Hammer** (3:46)
Unfortunately, not.
And that area of Indianapolis, we're so proud of. We are so, I know you guys are as well, so proud of our downtown Indianapolis and we're really kind of six or seven blocks southeast of the monument. So we're part of downtown, we're part of Fletcher area, but we are part of downtown and we're so grateful and so pleased to run a family fun, a father welcome event that is really, I think because of the ambiance at set, we really walk away with a beautiful festival.

**Nigel Jason** (4:34)
So and I'm looking at your advertisement here and like, it's got all the big words jumping at me, like that have caught my attention. It's like a monster truck show.
Italian sausage, local beers, Italian wines, cheesecake, fettuccine Alfredo, meatball sandwiches, breadsticks. Like it's one right after the other.

**Hammer** (4:54)
Right.

**Nigel Jason** (4:54)
And now you factor in. You've got live music. It's outdoors. Hopefully the weather cooperates. Amazing desserts here.
Before we start trying some of this food here, we're going to get some samples. Where can we get tickets?