For two decades Nicholas Grillo has been the impresario of La Festa Italiana at Holy Rosary Church in Downtown Jersey City, where neighborhood newcomers are joining what’s left of the old school Italians at the annual five-day festival.

Grillo was in eighth grade at Holy Rosary grammar school when he began volunteering at the now 116-year-old feast making pizza. When he became chairman in 1999, the feast that includes, food, drinks, live music and a procession with holy statues, was taking in only about $4,000 each year.