Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Italian Festival Association Chair Ross Finocchiaro says the event will make a comeback in May after a four-year hiatus with plenty of food and entertainment planned

Transcript

Italian Festival Association Chair Ross Finocchiaro says the event will make a comeback in May after a four-year hiatus with plenty of food and entertainment planned · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The popular Italian Festival.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: It's coming back. It's going to be at Darwin's Waterfront,
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: the Fort Hill park Lands. It's going to turn red,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: white and green as it's transformed into Little Italy for
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: the fifth Darwin Italian Festival. And joining me on the
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: line to tell us a little bit more is Ros Finocchiaro.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Good morning to your Ross. Good morning very well.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Now, Ross, you are indeed the Italian Festival Association Chair
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: and by the sounds of things, it's going to be
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: a fantastic year for the Italian Festival.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Yes, we've been we've had it in on parks due
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: to COVID for some what is it that's now mounting
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: close to four years, I think yep. But we're very
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: very excited to be able to hold it this year
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: at a new location and we've jumped around a little
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: bit with our location. We think that keeps a fresh
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: and vibrant and so yes, we're furiously trying to pull
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: pull all the strings so that we have a marvelous event.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Well, there is no doubt it'll be fantastic and it's
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: going to be this year down at the waterfront.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: What can people expect.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Well, the usual lineup of of attractions, of various acts.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: We're not going to say what they are just yet.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: We're going to announce them over a period of time
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: leading up to the festival. Obviously, the you know, the
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: cultural dancing that we hope that a few of the
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: troops that they're going to join us with. Obviously obviously
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: the lovely food, which is a strong part of Italian culture.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: And Ross I reckon that is the element. I reckon.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: The food is what a lot of people are going
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: to be absolutely hanging out for and wanting to get
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: stuck into.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: We all love the Italian food, oh.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Yes, and so do we sometimes a little bit too
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: much like you no, So it's a similar format with
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: some innovation. We try to do a bit of innovation
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: each and every year. The quality of the food's got
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: to be there and the authenticity of it. So our
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: vendors that are keen to join us, and they always
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: are understand that and I think in the past have
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: proven that they can really do a good job and
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: we're expecting the same going forward.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Ross, how do you go through that process of
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: you know, finding the vendors when it comes to the food,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: because yeah, it's it's one of those things where everybody
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: just like they love Italian food and you've got to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: make sure that the quality of it's high, which it
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: always is at the Italian Festival.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, well, it's it's a it's a process, and many
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: vendors are repeat you know, express and interest almost immediately
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: after we finished one festival, asked to be to be
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: considered for the further for the next festival, we always
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: add a few more and and we provide them an
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: understanding about, you know, the array of food that we
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: want offered, that it has to it has to have
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: a serious and genuine connection to Italian culture. And they
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: can come on that basis and usually you can tell
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: if they're keen to be involved and they've got passion that,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: you know, for the preparation of food and serving it,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: you can you know, usually you can tell, and they're
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: the sort of people we want on board.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Ross.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea from previous years?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: And this might be a bit way out, but do
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: you have any idea how many cares of things like
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: past are you sold in previous years?
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: I must admit I personally do not. I'm sure that
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: the vendors have that, and I suppose probably the the
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: person that deals with the vendors all the time does
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: that and looks after that. We certainly talk about We
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: certainly talk about the portions, the amount of people that
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: come along. I don't have the numbers off the top
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: of my head in terms of portions. We certainly also
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: talk about queues. We don't like long queues. Sometimes they
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: happen some stores are more popular than others, and so
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: sometimes there's an imbalance in the length of cues, but
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: we actually talk about them and try and solve them
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: ahead of time. Some we get well, most of the
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: time I think we get it right, but we make
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: errors too.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And you know, it's like, I just think it's so
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: interesting to see how many people turn up. It's always
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: such a busy event, and rightly so. Everybody loves getting
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: out there and experiencing the Italian culture. And as you
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: mentioned right at the start, it's going to be a
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: little bit different this year because it is moving to
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: the waterfront. What can people like, how will it be
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: sort of how will it be different from that operational
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: perspective down there at the waterfront.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Well, in the past we've had it's a bit more
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: it's a more open site. It's obviously right next to
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: a water, the water body of water to harbor, so
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: it just gives a different ambiance. I mean, it was
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: a scary decision to move it away. You know, it's
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: always easy to do the same thing over and over people.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: That gets rid of a lot of unknown and when
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: you get a really, really good response from a location,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: the instinct is to do it again because you fear
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: that otherwise, you think, well, maybe people might not warm
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: to a new location. But we've often taken the view
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: that by looking at a new location in a new way,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: it just gives it a slightly different vibe, and we
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: think it'll be more open, less tree canopy obviously, but
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: we have to put up shade, so you know, we
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: just we just provide a different sort of vibe about it. Yeah,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: very Italian, but just different.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it'll be wonderful. So it's happening the thirteenth of May.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: The thirteenth of May, that's it, So we choose around
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: that time. It's the kickoff to our dry season more
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: or less without a significant risk of the rain day.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: And then that leads into what hopefully is is a season,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: a new season of festivals that will come after that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Well, ROSSI are lovely to speak to you this morning.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: It does sound as though it's going to be a
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: wonderful event. We have just had somebody message through wondering
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: how come it hasn't had happened happened for the last
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: few years.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Was that as a result of COVID.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: That's it. Yeah, we decided not to press to press
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: on with our plans previously because of COVID. It was
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: a very difficult thing to do. We have to commit
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: lots of resources to pre commit them, and if, for example,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: you book acts and you pay deposits and they book
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: and they set aside their calendar, if you do not proceed,
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: then you still have to meet the financial obligation, which
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: is understandable, but from our point of view, it just
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: seemed too risky. And also the other thing too, is
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: that people with the best advice was that we should
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: have these big events within that vironment. So that's COVID environment.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: So we just thought we'd listen to the advice and
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: common sense.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Really, yeah, I think that's fair enough.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: And particularly when you're looking at those booking in those
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: acts and things like that, for a wonderful community event,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: you've got to make sure that, yeah, that you're doing
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: what's best for everybody. So I think that that is
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: a pretty sound decision to have made.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Ross. I think we'll all be very.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Much looking forward to the thirteenth of May. Thank you
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: so very much for having a chat with us this morning.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Thanks very much, Katie, thank you. Looking forward to everybody
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: at the Italian System.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're all looking forward to it, looking forward to
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: getting stuck into the food as well.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Ross, thank you.