 And another variety, we just only have about 40 different varieties. Jill has seen all but 15 of the festivals. This year's, he says, promises to be the best yet. The festival began as a thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest in 1898. That was the year that Italian immigrants first settled in northwest Arkansas. The original southeast Arkansas settlement had been devastated the year before by malaria. There was a priest by the name of Bandini. He heard of him.