Viva San Pietro

June 28, 2015 8:24 AM

Yesterday, "Surf and Turf" Joey DaSilva slid, slipped, and skipped to the end of a 45-foot-long telephone pole suspended over the water and covered with grease and slop. By grabbing the flag at the end, he became the 2015 Saturday champion of the annual Greasy Pole contest, making him one of the elite crew eligible to compete again on Fiesta Sunday for the rest of his life. It's one of the highlights of the unique St. Peter's Fiesta, an annual festival sponsored by the Italian-American fishing community of Gloucester, MA. The festival is a five-day celebration including a procession of St. Peter's effigy accompanied by bands and Sicilian chants, a Sunday mass on a large outdoor altar, seine boat races, a carnival, food, and drinking - lots of drinking. The annual festival is a defining force in Gloucester's tight-knit community, even as the fishing industry that generated it continues a long decline.

"How can I describe Fiesta? As someone who grew up in Gloucester, the annual five-day city-wide "party" seems normal, but whenever I invite people to join me for Fiesta and I tell them we'll go watch the greasy pole (a contest in which a bunch of Italian men dress up in drag and slide across a grease-covered pole suspended horizontally in the middle of the harbor attempting to grab the Italian flag stuck to the end of it), and on the last night we can march in the closing procession where people chant "Viva San Pietro!" (those who don't understand what to say chant "Eat a potato!")—my friends look at me like I'm barking mad. So I learned Fiesta isn't "normal" to most Americans."

"St. Peter’s Fiesta is firmly based on religious celebrations and offerings to St. Peter, protector of fishermen. While you enjoy the rides, food, music, sports and of course, Greasy Pole, don’t forget to take a moment to think of the men and women that haul up a day’s catch that end up on your plate as hot boiled lobster and baked haddock. It’s a tough life, but someone has to do it."

“Regardless of your family heritage or your religious persuasion and beliefs, Fiesta is part of the genealogy of living on Cape Ann,” said former Gloucester Mayor John Bell, no Sicilian he. “It links you to the fishing community and the traditions of this great, historic city. It’s very, very important. Most importantly, it’s for all of us.

Fiesta 2014 photos

posted by Miko (6 comments total)

(a contest in which a bunch of Italian men dress up in drag and slide across a grease-covered pole suspended horizontally in the middle of the harbor attempting to grab the Italian flag stuck to the end of it),

I saw the greasy pole with friends one year, & it was fun times! I don't recall anyone going for the pole being dressed in drag though - it was mostly young dudes in tight swim trunks.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:51 AM on June 28, 2015

I saw it yesterday for the first time. There were several drag walkers - one was a pirate wench, one in sort of a go-go dress with a lime green wig, one in a bikini. There was also a Pope Francis, a caveman, and some other, less determinate costumes. There were also plenty of tight swim trunks, though, and most of the wilder costume elements did not survive the courtesy round.
posted by Miko at 8:52 AM on June 28, 2015

There's a greasy pole competition in Portland, Maine at the St. Peter's Catholic Church, as well -- in the old Italian-American neighborhood. 90th Annual Italian Bazaar, August 15-16.
posted by Jubal Kessler at 9:16 AM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow that event footage is is like perfectly done..and yeah drones!
posted by Agent_X_ at 9:23 AM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Joey DaSilva slid, slipped, and skipped to the end of a 45-foot-long telephone pole suspended over the water and covered with grease and slop.

THANKS OBAMA!
posted by blue_beetle at 11:23 AM on June 28, 2015

We were just in Gloucester last week, and left the day the Fiesta started. If it hadn't been the tail end of a long vacation, I'd have liked to have stuck around for it.
posted by jferg at 8:16 PM on June 28, 2015