Taylor Street Little Italy festival canceled for 2nd year in row amid COVID, worker shortage

An annual festival in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood has been canceled for a second straight year, largely to avoid further stressing vendors already struggling to find workers, organizers said. The Taylor Street Little Italy Festa, which typically draws tens of thousands of people to the neighborhood in mid to late August, was canceled last year because of COVID-19.

This year's cancellation was partially driven by rising COVID-19 cases and the delta variant's emergence, said Ron Onesti, president of Onesti Entertainment, the group that puts on the event. But he said the primary factor was that going ahead with the festival would put an additional strain on businesses, particularly Taylor Street restaurants, struggling in a tight labor market to find workers, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.