🤩🤌 Bada bing, we’re feasting!

🤏 We were THIS CLOSE to a record-breaking Red Sox winning streak … but at least we still have our martini hats.

💕 Want to be the *perfect* wingman? Lucky for you, we’re partnering with Pitch-A-Friend Boston on Sept. 1 at Democracy Brewing, where you get on stage and tell everyone why your single bestie is a CATCH. We have five spots reserved for B-Side Members! So keep an eye out for Saturday’s Member email to claim them.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Mangiaaaaaaaa! The North End will be poppin’ off *every* weekend starting July 24 with Italian street festivals honoring different patron saints — and the neighborhood goes ALL out. Expect parades, religious traditions, marching bands, and of course, wayyyyy too much food.

Here’s the rundown:

🍝 July 24-26: St. Joseph’s Feast. Honoring Joseph (a.k.a. the patron saint of workers), this season opener features a busy three-day lineup of live music (think: everything from jazzy singers to 70s disco), two big processions, and vendors with alllll your Italian faves, like grilled sausages and cannoli.

🕺 July 30-Aug. 2: St. Agrippina di Mineo Feast. The biggest part of this feast? Literally the statue and tower of St. Agrippina herself. Weighing one metric TON, this *massive* structure will be carried by 20 men, who will play a famous tug of war then dance at the end. Also be sure to check out this year’s new vendors, like Gennaro’s Cutlet Counter (a Salem sammie staple) and D'Abruzzo NYC, known for its award-winning arrosticini. 

🇮🇹 Aug. 7-9: Madonna Della Cava Feast. Want just a taste of the feast action? This one’s for you. This feast, which coincides with its sister celebration in Pietraperzia, Sicily, is still busy, featuring ~100 food and craft vendors, but apparently has slightly smaller crowds than the others, making it the go-to option for newbies. 

🎣 Aug. 13-16: Fisherman’s Feast of the Madonna Del Soccorso. This is Boston’s oldest continuous festival, honoring the fishermen of Sciacca, Sicily … but sorry, we’re here for the meatball contest. You can taste the best meatballs in town and crown the winner at the end (the dream!). It’s $10, but totally worth it tbh. And don’t forget to see “Flight of the Angel,” a fab tradition where a child dressed as an angel “flies” above the crowd.  

🍽️ Aug. 21-23: San Gennaro Feast. Chow down on 50+ food vendors and beloved local restaurants, like Bricco, Trattoria il Panino, and Café Dello Sport, at this three-day feast in honor of the patron saint of Naples. Plus, enjoy live Motown and soul sounds, a beer garden, raffles, and more.

🤩 Aug. 27-30: St. Anthony's Feast and St. Lucy's Feast. Anddddd we saved the best for last — this combined event is THE biggest, baddest of them all. With 250,000 visitors each year, St. Anthony’s alone is the largest Italian religious festival in New England and was named one of the Globe’s best cultural festivals of 2026. Expect an open air piazza at Regina’s, hourly chef demonstrations, tons of street performers, and all the softball-sized arancini of your dreams.

😝 Hungry for more? Dig into all the deets here.

🍔📱 It's a routine for a reason. Instead of convincing yourself shredded cheese counts as dinner, order from Boston favorites like Mamaleh's, Naco Taco, Stubby's, Bar Cino, Stoked Pizza Company, J.P. Licks, and more. Restaurant orders over $50 come with no delivery and no service fees, leaving you with one important decision: fries or no fries? (The answer is always fries.) Order on Grubhub now and let someone else do the cooking tonight.

🗳️ Meet your laundry list of ballot Qs. Residents will decide on nine (!) questions this November, including zoning, public records laws, nature conservation, gun reform, and more (ICYMI, the rent control one got tossed last month). But the hottest topic? No. 8, which asks whether to make recreational weed illegal again (and impose fines for anyone in possession of more than two ounces). BTW, this is the most Qs we’ve had since 1994 … so beware of the poll lines this year. See all the questions here. 

🚇 POV: Your Red Line commute increased from 20 minutes to two hours … That describes Globe reporter Spencer Buell’s Tuesday morning, when the shuttle bus took 30 minutes to go one stop from Alewife to Davis. Wanna Bluebike instead? Make sure to snag one early … One guy said there were none left at Porter when he got there. So your best bet might be either the express bus from Harvard to South Station, or the Green Line. Gentle reminder: We’re in this through July 30 …

🏃 Boston Beach Sprints are BACK! The Head of the Charles is hosting its second annual three-day rowing event from July 24-26 at Carson Beach in Southie. Oh, and it’s also the largest beach sprint competition in North America. If you missed it last year, this is a FAST race where athletes go head to head, running across the beach, getting in their boats, rowing 250 meters out and back (while weaving through buoys), then finishing at shore. Fun fact: This sport will also debut at the 2028 Olympics in L.A.

✈️ Psst! This is the last day of Southwest’s sweeeeeeet flight sale. You can book cheap one-way flights now for as low as $49 for travel between Aug. 8 and March 3, 2027. So plan your PTO ASAP ‘cause we’re seeing mega deals rn, like $129 tickets to San Diego and $109 for Chicago this fall. Note: There are specific blackout dates around Thanksgiving and the holidays, so make sure to read the fine print. And again, this sale ends TODAY.

Listen up, boys! We’ve got limited spots now for y’all at our July 30 matchmaking event with WBUR and Love Letters (we’re out of girl tickets, sorry!). Fill out a personality questionnaire, let the algorithm do its thing, and meet someone new. Grab your ticket here, and use the code BSIDE5 for $5 off!

Go get your bag, girl! Carolina Soto is a Duck Boat narrator who makes $18.50 an hour. But with tips, she’s making BANK.

In case you’re new here, Duck Boat season is only from March through November, and Carolina may give as many as five 80-minute tours a day. 

In her highest week so far this season, she earned $1,422 in tips alone. And that’s not even the most she’s seen: Last season, she raked in a whopping $2,391 after just six days of work.

But she said if there’s sucky weather or a field trip group, the tips are usually much lower.

As an added bonus, she also gets $2 for every hour she narrates and added about $2,100 to her income last year, which totaled a solid ~$50-60K. But she said this pales in comparison to some of her fellow narrators who can make $80K … ummm, where do we sign up??

— Written by Kelly Chan

⛴️ Thanks for reading! If only a Duck Boat narrator spoke at our Career Day …

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Grubhub, for supporting local journalism and keeping Boston's favorite restaurants just a few taps away.

💃 The results are in: 50% of B-Siders are actually not on the line-dancing trend. One reader said, “If I tried line dancing, it would quickly become a game of Twister!” Sounds like a case of FOBU (fear of being uncoordinated) to us!

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and X. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] and [email protected].