As a tribute to Italian culture, history and unique way of being, the months of July and August in Cairns belong to the Italian Festival, which for the past two years has been celebrating Italianness in all its many forms.

The festival was conceived by its organising committee, made up of chairman Steve Cordenos, vice-chairman Luigi Garozzo, treasurer Claudio di Bartolomeo, secretary Anna Cito and Angelo Aurelio, who created a riot of colours, flavours and symbols typical of Italy for the people of Cairns to enjoy.

The festival celebrates Italian history, culture, food, wine, song and dance, and goes for over two weeks. It also aims to pay tribute to Italian immigrants who left their native country in search of a new life and better future. The festival also acknowledges generations of Italians who settled in Australia, changing the face and future of the North Queensland.

“I have always been very connected to my roots, my passion is my family, my parents, and so the vice president of the Cairns Italian Festival and I came up with this event to honour immigrants, our people,” shared chairman Cordenos.

“Our Italian culture and our roots are what is most precious to us. We can proudly say that we are the biggest cultural event in this region.

“This year’s was the second edition of the event, originally conceived by Patty Poutanen who was part of the committee.”

Cordenos’ parents, originally from Friuli, arrived in Australia in 1961. They left a settled life in Italy to take, like many others, a leap of faith.

After attending many meetings, and while out to dinner for his parents’ 60th wedding anniversary, Cordenos received a phone call informing him that he had been elected chairman of the committee.

He almost saw the appointment as a sign of destiny, making it impossible to turn down. Cordenos admitted that although he had never organised events before, he was an ambitious businessman who threw himself in the deep end.

The festival’s first year lasted 11 days and contained a play. The play was 1980 comedy about a wedding between an Italian boy and an Australian woman, something that was difficult for an Italian family to accept in those days.

People turned out in droves right away, reaching a total attendance of 25,000 in the debut year of the festival. This year, however, lasted 17 days and attracted a whopping total of 30 thousand people. Among this year’s novelties was the publication of their first book, entitled The Story: the Faces of Italian Immigrants.

Cordenos was keen to specify that in Australia most festivals are becoming multicultural with food from other countries, leaving little room for cultural insight into one nation specifically.

“I felt that we should keep up the tradition with a festival that was only Italian, without contamination from other countries,” he said.

“This year was significantly better than last, as many as 32 booths with specialties from all Italian regions, mask stores, jewellery, sweets and other specialties, coffee and other typical products with fourteen hours of non-stop entertainment.”

Everyone knows that Italian culture is largely centred around the family, therefore, one of the best moments for Cordenos was seeing the children try their hand at activities like painting the tricolour flag on people’s faces, creating jewellery with coloured pasta and many others.

A plunge into the past that merges with the present and generates a touch of melancholy, but above all a desire to carry on ancient traditions and consolidate the Italian identity in this remote corner of the world.

“I am totally satisfied,” said Cordenos, “the comments on social media and all the people who came to me to congratulate the work done by the committee and seeing the smiles on people’s faces remind us that these are precisely the reasons why it is worth organising such an event.”

At the end, Cordenos and the committee took the opportunity to thank immigrants past and present, their sacrifice and what they have done to ensure a bright future for the next generation of Italian-Australians. They then thanked the sponsors and the rest of the committee for all the work done together in synergy, making the event possible.

“Italians know how to put on a show, it was significant to have such great success already after two years,” added the committee.

“Another fundamental thing that characterises being Italian is human relationships and connections at the community and social level.

“Everything is possible if people help each other and Italians are masters in this, we hope to do better and better in the future.”