Feast of San Gennaro Comes to Little Italy Sept. 15-25

LITTLE ITALY, NY — Go for the cannoli-eating competition, stay for the piles of pizza and live music.

Little Italy's longest running festival, the Annual Feast of San Gennaro, is coming Sept. 15 through Sept. 25 this year, so you better get your stomach ready. The 11-day festival fills the neighborhood of Little Italy with live music, parades and food stands selling sausages and peppers and other Italian delicacies.

This year marks the 90th year of the festival, put together by the nonprofit organization Figli di San Gennaro (Children of San Gennaro). It's a celebration of the hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants who made Little Italy in Lower Manhattan their first home in America, the festival's website says.

The Feast of San Gennaro is a Catholic celebration of the Patron Saint of Naples, a tradition Italian immigrants in New York City brought with them in 1926.

The schedule for this year's live music performances hasn't yet been released, but we will update when it is.

The 90th Annual Feast of San Gennaro 2016 takes place on Mulberry Street between Canal and Houston streets, and Grand Street and Hester Street between Baxter and Mott streets.

Image courtesy of Feast of San Gennaro