St. Ann kicks off 106th Italian Festival in Hoboken (PHOTOS)

HOBOKEN -- Dozens of people gathered Saturday afternoon into the evening to kick off day two of St. Ann's Italian Festival, which has been apart of the Mile Square City now for 106 years.

While city police blocked off the area near 7th and Jefferson streets at St. Ann's Square, the smell of bratwursts filled the air and children rode carnivals and played games during the celebrations of Latin and Italian culture.

The festival, which corresponds with a nine day novena -- or prayer -- will continue through Tuesday.

A pizza contest determined Hot House Pizza on 2nd Street has the best slice in town, followed by Margherita's Cafe -- which won the match last year -- in second place and Rosario's At Willow in third.

Felix Fragosa, a 52-year-old city resident who has been helping set up the event for 23 years, said he can recall loving Italian Festival as a kid, trying to find shortcuts to get around because there were so many people congested in the street.

"I remember running around here when I was little and saying, 'One day I'm going to work here,'" Fragosa said in the early afternoon, sitting in a chair next to St. Ann Church at 704 Jefferson St. "And sure enough I did."

While some sweated in the more than 90-degree heat, people walked in and out of the festivities to purchase food and chat with the roughly 45 vendors on scene, Fragosa said.

Kids jumped through a bouncy house and teens attempted to ring the bell at the top of a high striker, or strongman game, as it's known to some. Sawyer Peel, a 3-year-old donning a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey, hurled a baseball into a net set up just for that.

"Make sure you add something about his future baseball career," Sawyer's 41-year-old father Eric, who lives down the street from the festival, jokingly said. "This is great. [Hoboken] is just a really nice, family township."

The rest of the festival, is scheduled as follows:

Sunday, July 24: 1 to 11 p.m.

Monday, July 25: 6 to 11 p.m.

Tuesday, July 26: 1 to 11 p.m.

Luke Nozicka may be reached at lnozicka@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @lukenozicka. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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