The Little River Band performs Saturday night of this year’s festival!
After months of preparation, the Italian-American community of Iowa is thrilled to welcome all of you to the fifth annual Italian American Heritage Festival of Iowa!
Every year our festival gets bigger and better. This year, we return to the Western Gateway Park in downtown Des Moines.
With more space than ever before, we have added additional entertainment acts, expanded our cultural exhibits, enhanced our activity offerings to include EVERYONE in the family, and brought back the many outstanding local food vendors that transform our festival into a virtual taste of Italy in Des Moines!
To learn more about our festival, we invite you to:
- Plan your day by scanning the festival schedule of activities. While you’re at it, check out the festival details to make sure you know your way around and understand the basics.
- Take in one of the many first class national and local entertainers that are performing at this year’s festival. To celebrate the fifth year of our festival, we are bringing you our best entertainment lineup ever, including our Saturday night headliner – the Little River Band!
- Stop by the Heritage Hall, housed in the Pappajohn Educational Center located at 12th and Locust, and check out one of the many cultural exhibits to learn more about our rich Italian heritage.
- Peruse our list of vendors to see if your favorite central Iowa Italian restaurant will be serving up their specialties (we don’t think you will be disappointed).
- Learn how everyone in the family can enjoy this year’s festival.
- Check out the many fun (and sometimes competitive) contests that are being held at this year’s festival.
- Drop by our bocce area to watch or participate in one of the many bocce tournaments planned for this year’s festival.
- See how the festival and the local Italian-American organizations give back to our local community.
- Visit and patronize our festival sponsors - we couldn’t put on class act without them!
- Finally – don’t forget to check out our Facebook page!