The Columbus Italian Festival returns this weekend, bringing three days of Italian food, live music, bocce, cultural performances, and plenty of reasons to spend some time in Italian Village.
Now in its 46th year, the festival has added a few new things for 2026, including a Friday night wine tasting and expanded bocce courts. There’s also a raffle for a five-night trip to Rome, a parade featuring Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Dante Fabbro, and an entertainment lineup that festival organizers say is bigger than in recent years.
But for a lot of longtime festival-goers, it’s still the food that makes the weekend.
And there’s one particular dish that you can only get here once a year: the festival’s famous Sicilian-style pizza.
“It’s all homemade. I mean, it is from scratch all the way, and it’s absolutely fantastic,” said Joe Ingrassia, director of marketing and communications for the Columbus Italian Festival.
People line up for the thick, rectangular slices, which come topped with homemade sauce, Grande cheese and a pepperoni made specifically for the festival. And this isn’t a small operation.
Festival organizers will make roughly 350 gallons of sauce for the weekend, with the sauce being prepared at Casa di Carfagna’s commercial kitchen.
For first-time visitors, Ingrassia has a pretty straightforward recommendation: get there, get a slice of pizza, grab a glass of wine, and start wandering.
“As soon as you come through admissions, you got to stop at the 4th Street Pizza booth, get a slice of that famous festival pizza,” he said. From there, he suggests walking around the bocce courts and food vendors before heading into the church for a tour.
That last stop is worth making. Saint John the Baptist Italian Catholic Church was built in 1898, and the festival offers visitors a chance to see the historic building during the weekend.
Of course, the festival is about more than eating your way through Italian Village.
It grew out of a church festival founded in 1980, and over the past 46 years it has become a much larger celebration of Columbus’ Italian American community. Students from local Catholic schools with Italian studies programs will perform cultural demonstrations throughout the weekend, while live music, dancing, bocce, and other activities fill out the schedule.
And you don’t have to be Italian to join in.
“This is a festival for everyone in Columbus,” Ingrassia said. “We just happen to be Italian. Join us.”
That may be the best way to think about the Columbus Italian Festival. It’s a celebration rooted in one community, but you’re invited to come experience it, too. And if that experience happens to include a slice of homemade Sicilian pizza and a glass of wine, even better.
