YOUNGSTOWN — Mike Mancini was at St. Anthony Church at 6 a.m., a half-hour after Ernie DiRenzo began making dough.

By 2 p.m. people were lining up at the tent where Diane Kist and Patty Trell turned $10 bills into boxes of fresh, hot Brier Hill pizza.

But the pizza, while renowned in the region, is not what the annual Brier Hill Italian Fest is really about, said Joe Naples, who has been organizing the festival since Dee Dee Modarelli started it 31 years ago.

“The key to this whole thing, from day one, is that almost everybody here has some tie to this hill,” Naples said Saturday. “I still have cousins here.”

Naples said 10,000 people once called the neighborhood around St. Anthony home. Most of them were Italian immigrants who kept many of the traditions and practices from the old country — including gardens where peppers grew and outdoor ovens that sometimes baked pizzas adorned with those peppers.

Naples now organizes the event with Modarelli’s son, Dominic, who took over the ITAM Club that anchors the historic neighborhood.

Jim LoPatta, a friend of Dominic’s, tends bar for the festival. He said the event gives people hope that their old home is still alive.

“It’s about the camaraderie of the neighborhood,” he said. “They’re bringing it back. It’s like its own little city.”

Naples said the nature of the festival hasn’t changed at all over three decades but it has come a long way from its humble beginnings, when it had no tent and just a few food vendors. It also has added some beloved traditions in recent years, including a procession honoring St. Rocco after 4 p.m. Saturday Mass.

This year, the procession included a statue of the saint, which originally was part of the St. Rocco Church on Calvin Street, but gifted to St. Anthony when St. Rocco closed. The statue has been in Italy for restoration for more than 10 years, since Monsignor John DeMarinis still led the congregation.

The St. Rocco procession was started about five years ago by Monsignor Michael Cariglio.

“It really added a nice touch to the festival,” Naples said.