St. Patrick's Day Organizers Optimistic Parade Can Be Held In Fall 2021
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Next weekend, the Boulevard of the Allies should be decked out in green for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. For the second year in a row, it is postponed. There is hope to have it later this year.
"We have one of the greatest St. Patrick's Day parades anywhere in the nation," parade secretary Kevin Convoy said.
The parade was one of the first major events to be postponed because of the pandemic. Organizers and city leaders pulled the plug on it just days before the annual event.
"It was not a blast," parade chair Mac McCafferty said.
The hope is it can happen on Sept. 18, a halfway point to St. Patrick's Day.
"This is like Christmas to us. We gear up for it every year, and it's so much fun for the Irish community," Convoy said.
"I'm excited about it. I think we're doing something a little bit different. A lot of people have just said cancel the parade and that was it," McCafferty said.
Organizers feel it can happen as more people are vaccinated and are optimistic more pandemic restrictions can be eased.
"I feel so much pride when I come down the parade route and when you turn the bend and see the hundreds of thousands of people just standing there cheering you on," Convoy said.
The annual celebration of the patron Saint of Ireland has thousands of participants and routinely brings hundreds of thousands of people to downtown.
"There's some things we can do this year that will make it exceptional that we might have to petition the Pope and see if we can change St. Patrick's Day to September," McCafferty said with a laugh.
With a little luck of the Irish, they hope it can go off without a hitch.
