It may be named the Mercer County Italian American Festival, but this year the event will call Burlington County home. The Italian American Festival will move to the Burlington County Fairgrounds on Route 206 in September from its former location at Mercer County Park in West Windsor. The event, which pays tribute to the Italian heritage through food, music, and entertainment, has been held in Mercer County for 18 years, but coordinators decided to host the festival elsewhere this year due to creative differences with the Mercer County Park Commission.

The Commission, for example, began requiring the nonprofit festival association to pay county staff to park cars and collect garbage, when such tasks were previously done by volunteers. “In the end, as a nonprofit organization, we had to make a responsible business decision that was in the best interest of our organization, our patrons and our budget,” the festival website read.