15th Annual Belmar Festival Italiano Coming Sept. 7th & 8th

Has it really been fifteen years since the first Belmar Italian Festival?

I didn't even live in downtown Lakewood the year of the first Festival Italiano. Instead I stumbled across it while on a bicycle ride out into the 'burbs from my then-home on Capitol Hill. There wasn't much to Belmar back then-- just a few blocks along Teller Street and Alaska Drive-- but I remember locking up my bike and grabbing a slice of pizza.

My plan for the festival this year is much the same as it has been every year since I moved to Belmar. I'll wander out my front door, pick up a glass of prosecco and watch Frank Sinatra perform (played this year by Derek Evilsizer). At some point I'll watch the Sbandieratori march up Alaska Drive and spin their flags to the sound of drums and trumpets. When it gets hot, I'll walk back home (that's the great thing about living in Belmar) and then come back in the early evening to sample the pizza and gelato.

One thing I am planning to do this year is map out my day a bit better than I usually do, as many of the musical acts only perform once. The schedule of events, including performance times, is available at the Belmar website.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that this year's festival is coinciding with the closure of Dino's Italian Food, which has operated on Lakewood's stretch of West Colfax for over 50 years. It's a reminder that in the early part of the 20th century, Italian Americans made up 20% of Colorado's population, and that the northwest side of Denver (including Lakewood) was home to many of these new Americans. When I was a kid in the 1970's, I remember the many red sauce, checkered table cloth, pizza and spaghetti joints that used to fill the area, along with an equal number of long gone Italian markets and taverns. Many of these places were already long past their heyday when I would go to them with my grandparents, but wandering the streets of Belmar during the annual Festival Italiano brings back memories for me, and is a wonderful celebration of the way that immigration has built today's Colorado.