Street performers from Cebu, Inc. dazzle with their Sinulog dance and colorful costumes. Photo by Cathy Uy 

The first-ever Filipino American Festival in Harvard Square was held on October 9 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in celebration of Filipino American History Month.

The event organized by the Harvard Square Philippine American Alliance (HSPAA) was held as part of the Harvard Square Business Association’s 43rd Annual Oktoberfest and Honk Parade described as a “unique, irreverent, family-friendly annual tradition where musicians and spectators reclaim the streets for horns, bikes and feet.”

The Philippine Consulate delegation was led by Consul Ricarte Abejuela III, who joined HSPAA organizers in the Honk parade which lasted for almost two hours starting from Davis Square to Harvard Square. The spectators were amazed by the Filipino-American contingents from Cebu Inc, Gingoognons in the USA, and the Mutya Philippine Dance Company of Philadelphia, with their colorful costumes and graceful street dancing.

The 43-year annual event takes place on Church and Brattle streets and has been hosted in the Square every year since 1978.

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Members of the Harvard Square Philippine American Alliance march down Church Street.  

Several live music stages were set up throughout the Square, featuring an array of bands from Cambridge and beyond. Filipino artists and bands, including social media sensation EZ Mil, performed on a stage in a Church St. parking lot, alongside booths set up by local Filipino-owned businesses serving Filipino dishes. Also participating in the FilAm festival was Tourism Representative Francisco Lardizabal who had a booth promoting top destinations in the Philippines.

The project was conceptualized by the HSPAA led by Catherine Uy and Satrick Uy. The Harvard Square Alliance estimated the number of total attendees at 80,000 people.

Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper of Harvard University,  reported how Sunday’s Oktoberfest entertained “overflow crowds with beer, sausages, and music.”

“The event coincided with the…first-ever Filipino American Festival in Harvard Square…Filipino artists and bands performed on a stage located in a Church St. parking lot, alongside booths set up by local Filipino-owned businesses,” reported the Crimson.

Organizers Cathy & Satrick Uy said the FilAm festival was a hit. Said Cathy when reached by The FilAm, “We’re so happy that we were able to make a lot of our kababayan happy and united even for one day.” @The Filam

Former employees of the Ferranti-Dege camera shop, co-founded by Anthony C. Ferranti ’46 in 1955, would affectionately refer to themselves as alumni of “Ferranti-Dege University.”

For many, the experience of working and shopping at the store often transcended the curriculum at the university across the street.

For 51 years, Ferranti watched Harvard students and Cambridge residents learn the craft of photography at his shop, which he ran with his brother until 2006, leaving an impression on many who passed through.

Ferranti died in July at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he retired with his wife, Nancy Ferranti. He was 97.

Ferranti founded the shop with Charles F. Ferranti, his brother, who died in 2011. The camera store grew out of the now-defunct Harvard Barber Shop, co-owned by the Ferrantis’ father, Charles Ferranti, who immigrated to the United States from Italy.

The shop — which once resided in the space now occupied by Zinnia Jewelry — closed its doors in 2006, leaving longtime patrons to mourn its exit and celebrate the fond memories it created in the previous five decades.

“He made very good friends at Harvard that he kept throughout his life,” said Nancy Ferranti, his wife of 36 years. “He was part of Harvard Square, as a student and as a businessman.”

A former employee, Thomas N. Bethell ’62, wrote in a note to Ferranti that his work at the shop was the most meaningful aspect of his time at Harvard.

“I can’t count the number of times when someone has asked me where I went to college, and I say Ferranti-Dege,” Bethell wrote in the letter, provided by Nancy Ferranti.

“Getting to know you and Charlie and hanging out at F&D was far more important to me, and is much more fun to remember, than just about any of the classes I took — visited would be a better word — at Harvard,” he wrote.

The camera shop grew out of Ferranti’s experience as an undergraduate at Harvard.

James J. Casey, the store’s longtime manager, recalled that Ferranti would print slides from Harvard football games and project them in the store’s window all through Saturday night and Sunday morning.

“He hired a lot of college students, especially from Harvard, who needed the money to work because they were there on scholarship,” Casey said. “Tony and Charlie were brought up that you share what you have.”

Ferranti grew up working at the Harvard Barber Shop, his family’s business. He left Harvard after his freshman year to join the U.S. Air Force, stationed as a navigator in Washington state during World War II. After completing his service, Ferranti returned to complete his undergraduate degree, graduating in 1946.

Ferranti began his post-graduate life in politics, working for Adlai E. Stevenson II, the Democratic governor of Illinois who ran for president in 1952 and 1956.

In 1955, Ferranti and his brother opened Ferranti-Dege. While building his Harvard Square business, Ferranti continued his political advocacy, participating in civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests, including the March on Washington in 1963.

Casey recalled one instance in which world-famous musicians John Lennon and Yoko Ono visited Ferranti-Dege, seeking a replacement part for one of Lennon’s video cameras. While customers and passers-by were captivated by the celebrities, Ferranti focused on making the sale.

“Tony really couldn’t care less about it. They’re just musicians,” Casey said. “It was a Saturday. It was a busy day, so let’s let everybody else just jump into things like that.”

After withstanding more than 50 years of change in Harvard Square, Ferranti was forced to close the store in 2006 due in part to waning interest in film photography.

“I will miss it,” Ferranti told The Crimson at the time.

Daniel Ferranti, Anthony Ferranti’s son, said his father was touched when a contingent of Cambridge residents came into the shop to give it a proper send-off on the day it closed.

“Right around closing time, they showed up with champagne and a chorus, and they sang to my dad,” Daniel Ferranti said. “He was simultaneously super touched and super taken aback, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him both that happy and that vulnerable.”

Anthony Ferranti is survived by his wife, four sons, three step-children, and 12 grandchildren.

Central Rock Gym rocked Harvard Square with its grand opening in the Abbot Building this past August.

Hundreds of people turned out for the gym’s Harvard Square opening on Aug. 12, according to the location’s general manager, Che Hartman. The gym currently has rock climbing programs but will soon expand to offer yoga and fitness classes.

In an interview, Hartman attributed the great turnout of the Harvard Square opening to the gym’s existing customer base.

“The word gets out really quickly,” she said. “Our already existing Central Rock family knew we were coming.”

Hartman added that the location’s first few months “have been amazing”.

Since the opening of its first location in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2009, Central Rock Gym has expanded to 15 locations in New England and New York.

Hartman said both Harvard and MIT students have frequented the new gym thanks to its convenient location close to the Harvard Square T station and Harvard Yard.

Another neighbor of Central Rock Gym is the new location of El Jefe’s Taqueria, a beloved Harvard Square hot spot.

Hartman teased a potential partnership with the restaurant, saying they have been “absolutely the best.”

“They plan on hooking up our members and are more than happy to grow a partnership, which is awesome,” she said.

Another upside of the gym’s location, according to Hartman, has been its proximity to foot traffic.

“The nice thing about where we’re located, is you’re walking the streets – you can see right into the gym, and you can see people on the walls,” she said.

“Just the visibility of us from people walking by has been amazing,” she added.

Hartman also said the gym welcomes newcomers.

“A lot of people in the Cambridge area that have no idea what rock climbing is, or maybe do but didn’t know that we’re here, can actually see our space, and they will kind of mosey on up,” she said.

Central Rock Gym’s Harvard Square location offers student discounts at the beginning of each school year. This year’s special ended on Oct. 1, but the gym continues to offer a discounted membership for anyone aged 22 and under.

Reflecting on the business’ first couple months, Hartman acknowledged stress associated with the opening but said a highlight has been the customers.

“But the first day as soon as people started coming with smiling faces — it’s very cheesy — but that’s been the best part,” she said.

Harvard Square hosted Cambridge’s 43rd Annual Oktoberfest on Sunday, complete with beer, sausages, and music to entertain overflow crowds.

The event, which took place on Church St. and Brattle St., has been hosted in the Square every year since 1978, when it was first organized by Frank Cardullo.

The event coincided with the 17th Annual HONK! Parade, the first-ever Filipino American Festival in Harvard Square, and a poetry festival celebrating the 95th anniversary of the Grolier Poetry Book Shop.

The popular Harvard Square restaurants Alden and Harlow and Wusong Road hosted Oktoberfest outdoor beer gardens, along with the Commonwealth Wine School.

Several live music stages were set up throughout the Square, featuring an array of bands from Cambridge and beyond.

The weekend festivities began at 1 p.m. with the HONK! Parade, a brass street music performance that featured more than 20 bands.

Harvard Square hosted Cambridge’s 43rd Annual Oktoberfest on Sunday, complete with beer, sausages, and music to entertain overflow crowds.

The event, which took place on Church St. and Brattle St., has been hosted in the Square every year since 1978, when it was first organized by Frank Cardullo.

The event coincided with the 17th Annual HONK! Parade, the first-ever Filipino American Festival in Harvard Square, and a poetry festival celebrating the 95th anniversary of the Grolier Poetry Book Shop.

The popular Harvard Square restaurants Alden and Harlow and Wusong Road hosted Oktoberfest outdoor beer gardens, along with the Commonwealth Wine School.

Several live music stages were set up throughout the Square, featuring an array of bands from Cambridge and beyond.

The weekend festivities began at 1 p.m. with the HONK! Parade, a brass street music performance that featured more than 20 bands.

Performers entertain HONK! Parade crowds from a stage set up in the Square. By Marina Qu

Many musical groups performed on the Oktoberfest main stage, including La Banda Internacional de Chelsea, the Jamaica Plain Honk Band, and the School of Honk.

Sunday’s festivities also included the Filipino American Festival, hosted by the Harvard Square Philippine American Alliance for the first time this year in honor of Filipino American History Month. Filipino artists and bands performed on a stage located in a Church St. parking lot, alongside booths set up by local Filipino-owned businesses.

The festival was headlined by a 5:30 p.m. performance by rapper EZ Mil, who was joined by other artists and dance troupes on the Church St. Stage.

The weekend also featured an art installation called “Chalk on the Walk,” which invited attendees to create chalk artwork on the Church St. pavement.

Acrobats wowed audiences in Brattle Square. By Joey Huang

The Grolier Poetry Book Shop, founded in 1927, joined Oktoberfest for the first time this year in celebration of its 95th anniversary. The shop hosted poetry readings, including from Boston Youth Poet Laureate Anjalequa Birkett and current Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola.

Revels, a Cambridge-based performance group, also joined the festivities on Sunday to promote its Midwinter Revels program, which will be held in Sanders Theatre in December.

Jennifer Sur, the organization’s administrative services manager, said Revels’ productions “look at different cultures and different time periods.”

“We look at the traditions around the solstice for those cultures, or Christmas, too, depending on the culture,” she said.

This year’s production will look at Mexican, Irish, and Jewish cultures set in Ellis Island in the 1920s, Sur said.

The celebration concluded at Grendel’s Den, which hosted an Oktoberfest after-party featuring the 20th annual keg tapping ceremony.

Home | Arts + Culture

A week of events in Cambridge and Somerville, from Longy’s ‘Begin Here’ to stories from Poe

By Marc Levy

Sunday, October 9, 2022

Sunday, Oct. 9

Honk! bands perform Sundays at Oktoberfest in Harvard Square. (Photo: Harvard Square Business Association)

Forty-third Annual Oktoberfest from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Harvard Square. Free. Food from all over the world, arts, crafts, vintage goods, free samples, sidewalk sales and one-of-a-kind gifts are packed in with beer gardens, the “Chalk on the Walk” art installation, music and dancing in the street. New this year is a wine garden hosted by the Commonwealth Wine School and complementary events: The Filipino American Festival and Grolier Poetry Book Shop’s 95th Anniversary Festival. The event has been known to draw as many as 200,000 people. Information is here.

Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands parade from noon to 2 p.m. from Davis Square, Somerville, to Harvard Square. The Honk! bands march, followed by performances on the main stage and other venues at Oktoberfest until 6 p.m. Information is here.

Cambridge Science Festival Carnival from noon to 4 p.m. adds to the festival’s all-day events, free in the festival zone around 292 Main St. There are more than 75 individual activities with hundreds of presenting partners, shows and events at a family-friendly extravaganza celebrating curiosity, diversity, ingenuity and innovation. Events include robot demonstrations, liquid nitrogen ice cream freeze-off competition, science improv with Harvard’s Hasty Pudding troupe, physics-themed circus shows, slime-making, solar-powered vehicles, giveaways, book readings, food trucks and more. Carnival information is here; overall festival information is here.

Bridgeside Cypher from 3 to 6 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. Free. Artists and musicians – rappers, singers and a band – perform in an often improvised format; expect an open mic part of this season finale too. Information is here.

“Borealis” installation (continued) from 8 to 11 p.m. by The MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Kendall Square. Free. Information is here.

The Runway Witch Fashion Show at 8 p.m. at Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. Tickets are $40. A drag fashion show with looks made and designed by Binx, who will also offer 13 ways to camp up Halloween wardrobes, then offer tunes to dance the night away under the blood moon. Information is here.

Grolier 95th Anniversary Festival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in front of Toscano, 52 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Free. Taking place as part of the square’s 43rd Annual Oktoberfest, this event features readings from Peter Balakian; Jennifer Barber; Stephanie Burt; Chen Chen; Martha Collins; Steven Cramer; Christina Davis; Richard Fein; Danielle Legros Georges; George Kalogeris; Joan Naviyuk Kane; Sandra Lim; Los Lorcas; Fred Marchant; Gail Mazur; Gloria Mindock; Porsha Olayiwola; Robert Pinsky; Anna Ross and Lloyd Schwartz. Information is here.

Harvard Square hosted Cambridge’s 43rd Annual Oktoberfest on Sunday, complete with beer, sausages, and music to entertain overflow crowds.

The event, which took place on Church St. and Brattle St., has been hosted in the Square every year since 1978, when it was first organized by Frank Cardullo.

The event coincided with the 17th Annual HONK! Parade, the first-ever Filipino American Festival in Harvard Square, and a poetry festival celebrating the 95th anniversary of the Grolier Poetry Book Shop.

The popular Harvard Square restaurants Alden and Harlow and Wusong Road hosted Oktoberfest outdoor beer gardens, along with the Commonwealth Wine School.

Several live music stages were set up throughout the Square, featuring an array of bands from Cambridge and beyond.

The weekend festivities began at 1 p.m. with the HONK! Parade, a brass street music performance that featured more than 20 bands.

Performers entertain HONK! Parade crowds from a stage set up in the Square. By Marina Qu

Many musical groups performed on the Oktoberfest main stage, including La Banda Internacional de Chelsea, the Jamaica Plain Honk Band, and the School of Honk.

Sunday’s festivities also included the Filipino American Festival, hosted by the Harvard Square Philippine American Alliance for the first time this year in honor of Filipino American History Month. Filipino artists and bands performed on a stage located in a Church St. parking lot, alongside booths set up by local Filipino-owned businesses.

The festival was headlined by a 5:30 p.m. performance by rapper EZ Mil, who was joined by other artists and dance troupes on the Church St. Stage.

The weekend also featured an art installation called “Chalk on the Walk,” which invited attendees to create chalk artwork on the Church St. pavement.

Acrobats wowed audiences in Brattle Square. By Joey Huang

The Grolier Poetry Book Shop, founded in 1927, joined Oktoberfest for the first time this year in celebration of its 95th anniversary. The shop hosted poetry readings, including from Boston Youth Poet Laureate Anjalequa Birkett and current Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola.

Revels, a Cambridge-based performance group, also joined the festivities on Sunday to promote its Midwinter Revels program, which will be held in Sanders Theatre in December.

Jennifer Sur, the organization’s administrative services manager, said Revels’ productions “look at different cultures and different time periods.”

“We look at the traditions around the solstice for those cultures, or Christmas, too, depending on the culture,” she said.

This year’s production will look at Mexican, Irish, and Jewish cultures set in Ellis Island in the 1920s, Sur said.

The celebration concluded at Grendel’s Den, which hosted an Oktoberfest after-party featuring the 20th annual keg tapping ceremony.

For the 17th year, Somerville and Cambridge streets from Davis Square to Harvard Square were taken over by the bright, percussive crowds for the final day of the 2022 HONK! Fest on Sunday.

“Every year it’s this same vibe, same positive energy,” said Bob Francois, who played with the Haitian street band Rara Bel Poze during Sunday’s parade. “We love to get the opportunity to participate in something with so much diversity and to expose our cultural tradition to everybody that’s here.”

The HONK! Festival lasts from Friday to Sunday, inviting brass bands from all across the country and providing a platform to local organizations, artists and activists. Since its start in 2006, the festival’s site boasts, the celebration has spread as far as Brazil and Australia.

Signs held high in Sunday’s parade ran the gambit of major national and local issues, from “Affordable Housing for All” to “Climate Justice Now” to “Yes on 4.”

“It’s only weeks away from the election, and we know that many folks won’t know about this Question 4,” said Roxana Rivera, the executive vice president of 32BJ SEIU, referencing the ballot question challenging undocumented immigrants’ ability to obtain driver’s licenses. “We want to make sure it’s given as much visibility as possible, given the short timeline.”

The festival, Rivera said, is a good forum to give issues like this one that type of visibility.

Many, largely organized by Vida Urbana, also used the parade to advocate for rent control and highlight skyrocketing housing costs across Massachusetts.

Wearing giant heads, carrying paper swords and shields and hoisting giant banners, housing advocate marchers pointed to tenants’ rights information and housing resources.

Nearly half of all renters face unaffordable housing cost burdens in Massachusetts, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the group said in a press release.

The messaging campaigns and brass bands blasting familiar rhythms blended seamlessly with performers on stilts, cultural groups, hula hoopers, bikers and more in the surprisingly warm, high-energy Sunday afternoon.

“My favorite part about HONK! is being incredibly exhausted,” one emcee yelled into a mic, “and finding the motivation to come back again.”