June 27, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — On a day when Greasy Pole walkers and seine boat racers crowned their champions, when musical finales ranged from the U.S. Navy Band Northeast concert band to Jimmy Geany and Paul London, the namesake of St. Peter’s Fiesta was the real center of attention.
Thousands lined Gloucester’s streets under idyllic, sunny skies Sunday for the Procession of St. Peter, with bearers carrying the life-sized 1927 statue of the patron saint of fishermen through Gloucester’s streets to culminate the final day of the 89th St. Peter’s Fiesta.
The procession, which over two hours primarily wound from St. Peter’s Square up Washington and Prospect streets, then into the Sargent Street neighborhood before returning to Prospect and the churches of St. Ann and Our Lady of Good Voyage, featured a handful of marching bands and floats.
More than one statue
But it was the appearance of St. Peter and the statues of other related saints that drew the grandest cheers, punctuated with the familiar chants of “Viva, San Pietro” throughout the nearly two-mile route.