At St. Peter's Fiesta in Gloucester, greasy pole competitors brave fog for a chance at glory

Boston Globe

15 hours ago

Contestant after contestant ran across the pole — which is greased with lard, fish guts, and oil among other slippery substances. One by one, they all fell, failing their mission to capture a flag planted at the end.
That is, until the
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Sunday marked the fifth and final day of St. Peter's Fiesta, a festival honoring Cape Ann's Italian-American fishing heritage. For nearly 100 years, locals and tourists have flooded Gloucester's streets in celebration of the Feast of St. Peter, the patron saint of fisherman, shipbuilders, and sailors. Each evening, revelers gathered for live performances of Italian love songs and covers of Rat Pack crooners.
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Down toward Gloucester's waterfront, street vendors sold treats and children lined up for carnival rides. On Sunday morning, the festivities began with an open-air mass at the flower-strewn altar in St. Peter's Square, followed by a procession. At 3 p.m., spectators gathered for the Blessing of the Fleet, as Catholic clergy offered prayers for the fishing boats bobbing in the harbor. For Gloucester's fishing community, long a
Throughout the weekend, crews of 10 rowers, a helmsman, and a coxswain competed in seine boat races, rowing out a half-mile from Pavilion Beach and racing to be the first back to shore. On Sunday, three racing boats — the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria — set off into the fog and returned minutes later, the calls of their coxswains swallowed by the chatter of beach crowds and the low growl of breakers hitting the shoreline.
But it was the greasy pole competition, with its odd mystique and can't-look-away sense of danger, that drew the most reaction from the crowd. It is a tradition that creates local
Shortly before 5 p.m., a fog bank rolled in from the east, leaving spectators straining to see the pole as it faded in and out of the mist. More than 100 boats floated off of the beach, from inflatable craft with outboard motors, to fishing boats waving American and Italian flags, to kayaks to yachts. As the competition started, the crowd let out a great cheer, and boats let off blasts from their fog horns.
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'They could be jumping off right now, we wouldn't even know,' said Matthew Vallis, a retiree who lives in Gloucester watching from the beach.
The competitors began their journeys, most of which ended in a quick fall. Some plummeted razor straight, others flailed their arms and scissor-kicked. One contestant wobbled out of control, but improbably made it nearly to the flag before falling, the crowd's growing cheer ending in a collective 'aww.' Another slipped and hit the pole hard, drawing a collective grimace of sympathy.
Sandy Bartos, 32, was getting food with a friend and their tired, curly-hair dog Luca after spending the day in Rockport when they saw the crowd gathering. After hearing about the competition, they decided to come down to Pavilion Beach and check it out.
'We were told it was the greasy pole contest, and that's tough to beat,' she said.
The festival was well-attended throughout the weekend. People of all ages crowded Stacy Avenue, eating ice cream and lobster rolls from food trucks. As the tide receded, kids splashed in the surf.
And the harbor, Vallis said, was the most populated he'd ever seen it for the event: 'I've never seen this many boats.'
Dan Glaun can be reached at