Fish and Chip Festival 2009

All this week hundreds of people have been making their way down to the Johhny Moscardini sports stadium to enjoy this year’s annual Fish and Chip Festival. The new covered seating has meant that many more people can now enjoy the very best that is on offer come rain or shine. (those quick summer storms that can sometimes hit Barga)

Freshly cooked pasta, grilled steak and sausages are on the menu but all eyes are on those freshly crisp fried fish and chips that you can only get once a year prepared by the expert hands of the AS Barga cooking team who have now been serving up pesce e patate for 28 glorious years.

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Some of the story behind the Fish and Chip festival: It was from this town, population 10,000, that harsh economic conditions caused an exodus to the industrial centres of Scotland at the end of the 19th century.
In such places as Ayr, Largs, Glasgow and Greenock, to hungry dockers and shipbuilders Italian immigrants sold fish and chips in the winter and ice-cream in the summer and so created a culinary culture that continues to this day.
The names of Nardini, Conti and Marchetti became high street fixtures as the Italians grafted unremittingly. Some of the settlers returned upon retirement and, by way of homage, started the Pesce e Patate festival 28 years ago as a greasy-lipped celebration of emigration and homecoming. source and more from the article about the fish and chip festival from Oliver Bennett

• Una serata della sagra devoluta alla Misericordia di Barga
• Barga family trading for 5 generations in Scotland
• Pesce e patate a Filecchio
• L’A.S. Barga presenta le sue squadre
• Successo per la serata benefica del “Fish & chips”