Are you speaking of the San Gennaro Feast, along Mulberry Street in NYC's Little Italy?

If so, I can tell you that almost since day one of its inception, All of NYC's Italian "festas" regardless of which borough they were in, but especially in Manhattan, have been "mobbed up."

San Gennaro Feast (Little Italy)
St. Anthony Feast (Greenwich Village)
Mount Carmel Feast (East Harlem)

...plus, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, etc. They have all had their fair share of "friends" involved.