City's oldest street festival packs Federal

Hot temps and sunny skies conspired to bring in huge crowds for this year's St. Peter's Italian Bazaar. A fundraiser for St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church on Federal Street, the two-day festival is in its 84th year and, according to this story in the Press Herald, is the longest running street festival in the city. Adam and I strolled over Saturday night to check out the booths and games run by parishioners.

Of course, one of the big draws was the food. Pizza was available by the slice, and this booth run by Nappi's sold eats such as meatball subs and Italian sausage. Adam enjoyed a chicken parm sandwich from the stand. As a vegetarian, I was pretty much out of luck (unless you count the cotton candy, which, thankfully for my teeth's sake, I didn't).

We got a real kick out of watching a series of young, buff guys try their luck at the infamous grease pole. The goal: Climb to the top and grab the American flag. The contestants could use a rag to wipe some of the grease from the pole, but, even with such assistance, it was slow going. Regardless of how high they could climb, the view from the ground was pretty impressive.