Saturday, March 25th                    ⇒                 10am at Oneida Square                     ⇒                       Reaching Columbia Street

 

Utica’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade: Irish Pride and Family Fun

Saturday, March 25th, downtown Utica will once again be the site of one of the Mohawk Valley’s most fun-filled family traditions: the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “It’s not just an Irish event,” offers Parade Director Frank Redmond, “but a community event as a whole.” The parade, which starts at 10 AM at Oneida Square and continues until reaching Columbia Street, will be led by this year’s Grand Marshal, Vaughn Lang.

The parade features hundreds of units — bagpipers, bands, marching units, floats and vehicles of every stripe — proceeding down Genesee Street to the delight of children of all ages; all vying for the coveted “best unit” trophies as voted by a panel of judges at the Stanley Theatre viewing station.

Also featured will be the annual food drive to benefit Mother Marianne’s West Side Kitchen. Parade-goers are asked to bring non-perishable food items to help fill the familiar green wheelbarrows.  “This is typically their largest collection day of the year,” says Redmond, “and I’d love nothing more than to make it even bigger this year.”

Utica’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade Rescheduled for March 25th

March 15, 2017

Utica, NY – Utica’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade may be under the weather, but it won’t be stopped.

After bitter temperatures were predicted for Central New York for March 11th, the annual parade has been postponed until Saturday, March 25th.

Citing public safety concerns over that day’s weather and being advised that wind chill factors could be 20 below zero, parade and city officials decided to postpone the parade.

“The fire department had a plan setting up stations along the parade route of warming stations and paramedics to identify and treat frostbite, but we could very easily be overwhelmed,” said Utica Fire Department Chief Russell Brooks. “You have tens of thousands of people that attend this parade, many of them are refugees that don’t really know the consequences or the severity of the cold weather.”

While the new date was chosen primarily for logistical reasons, there may have been a little “luck of the Irish” involved as well, as Utica is currently digging out from under Winter Storm Stella, which dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in the city and surrounding area on March 14-15.

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