Butler may get a taste of Little Italy.

The popular Italian festival Little Italy Days, which has been a staple in the Bloomfield section of Pittsburgh for a decade and last year brought in 150,000 people, aims to hold a festival in downtown Butler on Labor Day weekend in 2017.

Jack Cohen, Butler County Tourism & Convention Bureau president, presented the idea Tuesday at Butler City Council Tuesday.

He did so after speaking with the festival’s producers, Rocco LaManna and Sal Richetti.

“I grilled them for two-and-a-half hours to see if they were pretty sharp at what they do, and they’re pretty sharp,” he said.

Cohen pushed for a written contract to be done.

“That way everybody’s on the same page, there’s no surprises, everybody knows what’s what, and we can move forward with another great event for the community,” Cohen said.

He added that the event could bring in “a couple million dollars.”

City solicitor Jim Coulter said a contract could be drawn up within the next month. Cohen said that LaManna and Richetti are in favor of doing that as soon as possible.

“The bottom line is it takes money to produce a festival because you want to have great entertainment,” Richetti said. “It costs a lot to promote a festival, and we want to keep it a free festival.”

The key to doing that is to have sponsors, said Richetti in a separate interview.

Richetti said he and LaManna will go about getting sponsors “as soon as council says it’s OK.”

Both Cohen, at the council meeting, and Richetti stressed that this will be good for Butler.

“This will help the downtown businesses, and they’ll be tied into it” Richetti said.

He added that he’s looking to get local Italian groups involved, while Cohen said they’re looking to get churches involved.

While the Bloomfield festival drew more than 100,000 people last year, Richetti and LaManna hope to bring 30,000 people to Butler, should the festival happen.

The festival would potentially consist of fireworks, a car cruise, a Butler Ms. Italy, a Little Miss Italy Butler, a singing contest, boccie, cooking demonstrations, and more.

Richetti detailed why they wanted to set up shop in Butler.

“We’d like to take our business model to different regional areas,” he said. “And we noticed there aren’t many Italian festivals in Butler County, and we thought that could be a good fit, and we like the street. It’s a nice street, and there’s a nice business mix on the street.”

Mayor Tom Donaldson, who also met with Richetti and LaManna, was impressed with their pitch.

“They’re experts,” he said. “They’re professionals.”

Councilman Michael Walter expressed enthusiasm for the potential festival.

“I think it’s a good idea, having it here,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a great event.”