Pittston is well-known city in the Wyoming Valley. With a familiar story, it grew around the coal industry and has settled into being a bedroom community like so many others have since done. The downtown struggles as do the other downtowns in the area. Locally, Pittston is known as an area with great Italian ethnicity. Many of the store fronts display local owners with last names that end in a vowel: Sabatelle, Costello, Sperrazza, Adonizio, Saporito.

I have never attended the Pittston Tomato Festival before so I took an opportunity to do so on Friday night, August 17. For 24 years, the festival has increased in popularity and what a crowd this event attracts! I parked nearly five blocks away. You are really on your own when it comes to parking. Pick a vacant lot or squeeze into a spot onto the street. People living here come from all around for this event!

My first impression: the tomato is truly the Queen. The Queen even has her own Queen. As soon as you enter, you’re greeted by the farmer’s market with our tomato in all her splendor. She’s on shirts, on banners, and on items for sale. The staple in Italian cooking makes her presence known everywhere. She’s in a contest for the largest, the smallest, the most perfect and even the ugliest. There’s a Little Miss and a Little Mister.

There’s a blend of something for everyone: a band shell (Windfall was excellent), games for the kids, crafting and vendors. No doubt, though, the main attraction is the food. Tomato’s sisters, cheese and pasta, are everywhere: lasagna, gnocchi (say: nyookie), stuffed shells, ricotta, and parmesan. You can have some cannoli, tiramisu, and gelato as a chaser. No discrimination here, you can also get your fill of Polish keilbosa (say: ka-bossy) and pierogies. There are more food stands than anything else and the smell is positively intoxicating. There’s even a competition for a regional chef title. The winner will represent the Northeast region at the Preferred Best Chef of Pennsylvania on January 10 at the PA Farm Show.

To work off some of those calories, you can participate in the Tomato Fest 5K race. Last year, 185 participants joined in the fun, the perks and the prizes. If you want to be a little more aggressive, you can join the attraction smack dab in the middle of the schedule: the Tomato Fight at Cooper’s Waterfront Parking Lot. Mmm-hmmm. Yes. People willingly join in a tomato fight. The rules: throw tomatoes. That’s it. I read the The Official Program and am still uncertain about strategy or how a winner is chosen, but I think that’s the very gist of the thing. It’s just dirty fun.

The festival’s founder, Valentine Delia will be honored at the parade on Saturday. Although he passed away in June, his love of tomatoes will be remembered in this saucy Pittston tradition.