North End Festival
Today we’ll hear from an organizer of one of the most famous festivals in Boston: the North End’s St. Anthony’s Feast.
St. Anthony’s is one of the biggest of the dozen or so feasts in Boston’s Italian North End each summer. It is put on by the St. Anthony’s Society, an organization formed by immigrants from Montefalcione, Italy around 1900.
Almost every year since 1919, on the last weekend in August, tens of thousands of people from all over the world come to the feast. It’s a huge event, with games, bands, parades, and of course, food.
I wanted to know more about the feast, so I ventured out on Saturday evening — when you could barely walk in the streets due to all the people — and found one of the members of the feast committee.
Hahvahd Tour
On this episode, I’ll talk to two Harvard students who are stirring things up on campus this summer with their unauthorized Hahvahd Tour. That’s H-A-H-V-A-H-D. “Hahvahd.”
Two weeks ago, I was walking through Harvard Square looking for topics for Boston Behind the Scenes when I came across a group gathering for a tour in “The Pit,” next to the entrance to the T station.
This unauthorized tour of Harvard has gotten a lot of attention, with stories in the Globe, the Herald, and of course the Harvard Crimson. I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about, so I waded into the crowd, took out my recorder, and spent an hour and a half learning quite a bit about Harvard.
Afterwards, I sat down with my two tour guides for a behind-the-scenes look at the Hahvahd Tour.
[UPDATE: The Hahvahd Tour is now Unofficial Tours presents Harvard University, and they’re still going strong in Harvard Square]
Bob the Evangelist
This guest is a landmark all by himself: Bob Westin — AKA “That guy downtown with the sign about the end of the world.”
I see him quite often during my day to day travel, and when I do, I always wonder who he is. Does he have a job? Does he have a home? Is he crazy?
I ran into Bob on the platform in the Park Street T Station where he was handing out his last few pamphlets before calling it a day. I had my recorder, so I walked up and asked him for an interview. He usually gets his dinner for free from the leftovers of a few of the Quincy Market food vendors, so I went over there with him for a conversation about his life.
Every city should have a podcast like Boston Behind the Scenes.
This one is a no brainer; add it to your rotation right away.
