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Dallas plans no drunks ‘family friendly’ St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Upscale move to deter heavy drinking during the St. Pat’s festivities

Published Thursday, January 24, 2013, 7:25 AM

Updated Thursday, January 24, 2013, 9:39 AM

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Angela Hunt and Mayor Mike Rawlings congratulate GAABA on the St. Patrick's Day Parade name change at Dallas City Hall

Photo by Rudolph Bush/Staff writer

Dallas city officials are aiming to revamp the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebrations into an upscale “family friendly event” that will honor the tradition and pageantry of the parade.

Pegasus News reports the annual parade, which attracts more than 100,000 green-clad revelers, has been renamed the Dallas St. Patrick's Parade & Festival.

Mayor Mike Rawlings at a City Hall press conference on Wednesday said, “I’m so pleased you’ve taken this step to make it a better parade for everybody.”

“The focus is more family-friendly, less of a focus on drinking," said city of Dallas Council Member Angela Hunt. "I think it's a very positive thing.”

Hunt hopes the parade becomes a “more family-oriented” event and “less of an entirely adult-oriented, alcohol-centered festivity.”

Hunted added: “I talked to a guy from New York who comes here because he thinks we have one of the greatest parades anywhere. I think it has a much larger audience than just Dallas, so I don’t think you impact it negatively or minimize it or ignore its roots by branding it as a Dallas parade.”

Last year the Dallas parade made headlines when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban saved the parade after he wrote a check for $40,000 to cover costs. The “Shark Tank” star will once again contribute to the 2013 parade.

"I don't know that we could do [the parade] without him, I can say that," Greenville Avenue Area Business Association (GAABA) Vice President Tommy Donahue told Peagus.

Organizers have even introduced a new logo for the event. This year's parade will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 16. It will begin near Northwest Highway and will run south on Greenville Avenue to SMU Boulevard.

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Seanmor | Jan 25, 2013, 04:58 AM EST

The City Fasthers of Dallas have the right idea to keep their St. Patrick's Day parade a "family friendly evebt. Since the saint whose day is being celebrated brought the Christian faith to Ireland (15 hundred years before that contry was Partitiioned), the parade should reflect decency, respectability, sobriety and true family values.

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Smyrnian | Jan 24, 2013, 09:38 PM EST

WoundedKnee - That's sad to hear. Have not been to Dublin in a long time. Had no idea!

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joan1954 | Jan 24, 2013, 04:29 PM EST

Too bad the City of San Antonio won't do something to bring back that city's parade. San Antonio doen't consider European groups or it seems that way. We are not minorities but if the truth be known we are now the minorities in this city.

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WoundedKnee | Jan 24, 2013, 10:34 AM EST

Now if only Dublin would follow suit. I've given up going to Dublin for 3/17 as I am getting too old for the young drunks, the open air teenage sex (even tho it's freezing!), the street fights, the cursing, the petty crime, and above all the complete lack of any Irish cultural element in the parade. It has become an Immigrants parade, and you are far more likely to see a band of dancing dervishes from Afghanistan than you will pipe bands from Aherlow or Aughnacloy.

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