Entertainment

August 14, 2009

Tomato time in Pittston

By Mary Therese Biebel mbiebel@timesleader.com
Features Writer
Mary Therese Biebel on Facebook   |   @TLTLMaryTBiebel on Twitter

If you love tomatoes – cooked or raw, spread atop a crunchy bruschetta, stewed into pasta fagioli or flying through the air in a great, big food fight – downtown Pittston could be just the land o’ lycopene you want to visit.

This year’s four-day Pittston Tomato Festival begins Thursday on Kennedy Boulevard, and tomatoes will be a star attraction.

“We’ll have pizza, of course, and all the Parmesan dishes, fried green tomatoes and all kinds of sauces,” executive director Lori Nocito said.

Marinara fans can taste the sweet and spicy entries in a “sauce wars” competition - concocted by chefs from area restaurants - and vote for their favorite at $1 per vote.

“Last year we had people dipping Italian bread into their samples, and some even drank it straight out of the little cups,” said Tina Fisher, director of the Pittston YMCA, which runs “sauce wars” as a fundraiser.

For a somewhat messier competition, you can sign up to toss some not-quite-grade-A tomatoes in the annual tomato fight, set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Two hundred pairs of goggles will be available to protect participants’ eyes.

Growers of tomatoes will bring their most interesting specimens to be deemed largest, smallest, ugliest and “most perfect” tomato in a contest set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

And, if you didn’t grow any tomatoes but wish you had, you’ll be able to buy some from local farmers.

Apple pie a la mode, tiramisu, homemade ravioli, gelato and even tripe -- this traditional dish, for the uninitiated, is made from an animal’s stomach -- are among the other menu items Nocito expects to see.

Carnival rides for children, a rock-climbing wall and bungee jump, a 5-kilometer race, a parade, a scholarship pageant and a full line-up of musical entertainment also will be part of the fun.

Proceeds of the festival benefit area charities.

TOMATO FESTIVAL ENTERTAINMENT

THURSDAY

5 p.m.: festival opens

6 p.m.: opening ceremony

6:30 to 8 p.m.: Windfall Enterprises

9 to 11 p.m.: Groove Train

AUG. 21

6 to 8 p.m.: Somethin’ Else

9 to 11 p.m.: Bad Hair Day

AUG. 22

11 a.m.: 5K race

11:30 a.m.: parade

12:30 p.m.: race awards ceremony

1 to 2 p.m.: Queen scholarship pageant

1:30 p.m.: tomato fights at Cooper’s Waterfront parking lot

2:15 to 2:45 p.m.: Emerald Isle Step Dancers

3:15 to 4 p.m.: The Sperazza Band

4:30 to 5:30 p.m.: Danny Argo & Friends

6:30 to 8 p.m.: Mark Mack Orchestra

6:30 p.m.: Tomato contest

9 to 11 p.m.: Flaxy Morgan

AUG. 23

11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Little Miss and Little Mr. Tomato contest

12:30 to 1 p.m.: David Blight School of Dance

1:30 to 2:30 p.m.: Stanky and the Coal Miners

3:15 to 4:15 p.m.: The Hi-Lites

5:15 to 7:15 p.m.: The Poets

8 to 10 p.m.: Hyde Park

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