PORTLAND, Maine — Once a year, in Portland's East End, what used to be a heavily Italian neighborhood, gets back to its roots.
Thousands gathered over the weekend on Federal Street in front of St. Peter Parish for the 99th annual Italian Bazaar.
Long lines snaked around partygoers as patrons waited to buy pizza, cheesesteaks, pasta, and Italian cookies flavored with anise, giving them a slight licorice flavor.
During the week, an assembly line of volunteers baked and decorated 13,000 of these classic cookies, beating the previous year's record of 12,000.
"Throw your diet out the window," Nancy Goodwin, a bazaar coordinator, said with a laugh.
Once a gleeful patron in childhood, Goodwin said she has since become a longtime volunteer.
Families happily contributed time, energy, and resources to make the weekend worth the crowds, even local royalty.
Domonic Reali has owned the successful Amato's Sandwich Shops for over 50 years. A handful of members of the Reali clan worked a food tent outside the church, with a line that seemed endless. It wasn't hard to see why they kept coming.
"This is a great meal right here: grilled chicken with onions and peppers and ziti—out of this world," Reali remarked, holding a bowl of pasta to my camera and stirring its contents. "You don't find this in the restaurant."
The money from the festival helps maintain the church building, which is nearly a century old. Italian immigrants and their families filled this neighborhood for decades and continue to find their way back, as Michael Colello explained. He and Willie Audet co-chaired the bazaar.
"It really warms your heart to know that there is peace and love in the world," Audet said. "And, right now, it's right here on Federal Street."
"Families expand and get away," Colello said. "They stay in touch, but they leave this area. And this is a once-a-year celebration...everybody comes home."
Everybody comes home and everybody gets fed.