After A Pandemic-Related Hiatus, The Community-Focused Event Is Back
The before and after of my Dominican combo platter and Ukrainian pierogis on the last day of @IthacaPeaceFest! Could you tell I enjoyed myself? #ICParkSM #twithaca pic.twitter.com/QQ2PN1HKtK
— Lucy Calderon (@LucyCalderon0) September 18, 2022
Empanadas. Pierogies. Father Joe Marcoux’s famous clam chowder. Musical performances from The Blind Spots, Papa Muse, Sim Redmond Band Trio and so many more. These were a few of the smells, sights and sounds last weekend as family, friends and community members reunited for the 10th annual Ithaca Peace Festival at St. Catherine of Siena Church. The festival’s goal is to raise funds and awareness for peace-related initiatives locally and internationally. This year’s focus is on supporting Ukraine relief efforts.
How It Started
Ithaca Peace Festival began in 2011 as a community effort to honor the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, and as one of many events happening in Ithaca at local churches under the overarching title of “Ithaca Peace Week.”
Maura Fetsko, a member of St. Catherine of Siena Church, said she wanted to create a festival that used local music to celebrate the international community at her church and throughout Ithaca. Fetsko talked to St. Catherine of Siena Church pastor Father Joe Marcoux, and they agreed that Ithaca Peace Week would be the perfect opportunity to test drive the idea.
“Maura and Frank [her husband] are good friends, great people,” Marcoux said. “And they had these powerful ideas, little did we know it would take so much work. It was crazy, but we were doing it.”
Marcoux said the original goal of the festival was to bring together their diverse, multicultural community through an event that takes around 300 volunteers to pull off.
“We didn’t care about making money,” Marcoux said. “What’s important is to build community, inside and outside, that’s what our whole goal was for the last 10 years.”
After two years, the two-day festival turned into three because so many local bands were willing to perform.
“The music was great, and the bands wanted to come back,” Fetsko said. “People have such a good time that it’s really a great positive environment, and when we’re here, we’re usually energized then to say we have to do it again next year because it’s so good.”
More Than Just a Celebration
What started as a festival abuzz with music, food and children’s games to celebrate community and promote peace turned into something much more significant. Ithaca Peace Festival transcends far beyond its annual three days of festivities.
Since its inception, Ithaca Peace Festival has donated nearly $20,000 of its proceeds to support organizations that contribute to peace locally and globally.
Some recipients include:
- Feed My Starving Children
- Musicians for World Harmony
- Lopez Lomong Foundation
- Rotary International Foundation
- Portal de Belén School in the Dominican Republic
“If we are going to be gospel people, we better live what we say we live,” Marcoux said. “We have to walk the walk.”
A Welcome Return
This year’s festival shirts are blue and yellow to honor Ukraine, and some of the festival proceeds will support Catholic relief services in Ukraine.
“One of the reasons personally, I keep doing it is because it’s really great to have this focus [on giving back] when the world feels crazy,” Fetsko said.
Due to the coronavirus, the beloved community took a two-year hiatus. This year was special because the Ithaca Peace Festival was dearly missed by festival veterans.
“I think the peace festival has become a tradition in our house,” said Michelle Arroyo, festival volunteer and participant. “We always come together, all together.”
While it is promoted as an Ithaca-wide event, the festival still gets most of its attendance from the St. Catherine of Siena parish. Kristy Colbert, a festival volunteer in charge of booking the performers, said she and the other organizers want that to change.
“People say this is Ithaca’s best-kept secret, but we don’t want it to be,” Colbert said.
