An Italian taste

The biggest sign of appreciation is for the community to show up and enjoy the festivities, says the president of the Da Vinci Centre.

The ninth annual Thunderfest weekend event wrapped up on Sunday. Festivities took up most of the Da Vinci Centre parking lot with show cars, food venders and musical entertainment. The free community event had thousands of residents coming and going the night before on Saturday.

Domenic Meo, president of the Da Vinci Centre, said about 19,000 people had attended last night for performers John Wayne and the Thunder Bay Legends.
One of the main goals of the festival, he said was to promote local talent and promote community engagement. Perhaps one day, Thunder Bay could become a larger tourist attraction, he said.

While the festival celebrates Italian culture, Meo said all cultures are welcomed and wanted to keep the festival as international as possible.

"Italians are full of festivities," Meo said. "This year has been a bigger success than last year. We were a little bit too late when we started but everything came together in the end."

When the event first started in 2001, there were fewer summer festivals and events scheduled at the same time. He said in the last eight or nine years, almost everyone came
up with the same idea to hold an event or festival around the same time as Thunderfest.

"We aren’t in competition with (any other events)," he said. "We have established ourselves and we are getting stronger every year."

In the future, he said he hoped the community would continue to support free events such as Thunderfest by simply showing up. Meo added that he wanted to thank all the volunteers and sponsors for the event.

Felice Miele, entertainment chairman for the Da Vinci Centre, helped with Thunderfest since it first started in 2001. He said it made him feel good to have these kinds of community events and event prouder to be an Italian.

"It makes me feel good to see everybody that shows up," Miele said. "When I see everyone that comes to our event it makes me proud to be Italian. We like to do whatever we can for the community."

The final show for Thunderfest begins at 8 p.m. and the announcement of the winners of the trip for two to Italy following at 11 p.m.