The Columbia Italian Festival has been postponed to Oct. 17, 2026 because of expected rainy weather on its original Oct. 10 date.
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Local residents have been waiting 12 years for the Columbia Italian Festival to return. Now they’ll have to wait one week longer.
The Italian Festival was set to take place on Saturday, Oct. 10 in Finlay Park with a day of food, entertainment, games and more. But now festival lead organizer Tripp Roche says the festival will be postponed by one week, to Oct. 17, because of expected inclement weather on Oct. 10.
Hurricane Isaias is set to make landfall along the Gulf Coast this weekend, and is expected to bring widespread rainfall across the Southeast and South Carolina Saturday and into Sunday. As of Thursday morning, Accuweather was forecasting a 91% chance of rain in Columbia on Oct. 10.
“After keeping a close eye on the weather, we’ve made the tough decision to move the Italian Festival back one week,” the Italian Festival said on Instagram. “We know so many of you have been looking forward to (Oct. 10), and trust us — we have too! But with the weather headed our way, we want to make sure everyone can enjoy the festival safely and have the experience we’ve worked so hard to put together. So we’ll see you Saturday, October 17 from 1–7 PM at Finlay Park!”
The Columbia Italian Festival is returning for the first time since 2014. It will feature Italian food from a host of local restaurants, live music, retail vendors, a Ferrari car display, games and more. It will be another key event for revitalized Finlay Park, which reopened a year ago after a $24 million overhaul and has since played host to festivals, concerts, movie nights and more.
Chris Trainor is a retail reporter for The State and has been working for newspapers in South Carolina for more than 21 years, including previous stops at the (Greenwood) Index-Journal and the (Columbia) Free Times. He is the winner of a host of South Carolina Press Association awards, including honors in column writing, government beat reporting, profile writing, food writing, business beat reporting, election coverage, social media and more.
