Hungry visitors to La Festa Italiana held on to the last hours of the last weekend of summer Monday evening to close out Labor Day and the three-day celebration.
Organizers called the turnout at the annual event "phenomenal."
Sunday drew a record crowd, especially during the nighttime fireworks and a performance by the Poets, La Festa chairman Chris DiMattio said.
"Too many to estimate," he said. "We literally ran out of space."
Rain on Monday thin-ned the crowd, but traffic was steady around the food stands and vendor stalls.
The Scranton chapter of UNICO sold out of its popular porketta by 5:15 p.m. Monday, hours before the festival officially closed at 9 p.m.
"Unbelievable," the chapter's First Vice President Dave Bieri said.
The group sold 4,800 pounds of the Italian roast pork specialty and 21,600 rolls, he said, as latecomers groaned to see UNICO members breaking down the stand.
"Even with the rain, we always get regulars coming back because of the quality of the porketta," he said. "At one point today, I think everyone on the square had a porketta sandwich in their hand."
Remnants of the festival downtown will be gone as quickly as they came, organizers said.
Mr. DiMattio, the festival chairman, was helping to load boxes, bins and cutting boards into a trailer Monday even before the last act, a Dean Martin tribute, took the stage.
Some of the La Festa tents will be left on the square for next weekend's Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, he said, but 90 percent of the cleanup would be done Monday night.
"Tables and chairs will be gone by 2 a.m.," he said.
Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com