Visit our special St. Patrick's Day section here
Savannah, Georgia, is hoping to beat New York today and host the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the world.
However, New York is hardly quaking in its' boots.
According to SavannahNow.com, record crowds are expected to attend today’s celebrations, which will include more than 60 bands and almost 15,000 marchers.
New York however, claims 250,000 marchers so Savannah may have a ways to go.
The stars of the south however, say they are growing at a furious rate.
“For years and years, it’s always been said that New York’s was the largest,” says parade committee general chairman Michael A. Foran, who has been involved with the annual parade since 1976.
“According to the estimates I’m hearing, a million people will be in town over the weekend,” he says.
“We’ve got several livestreams on the Internet with a viewership of 10 million.
“Our website is getting 10,000 hits a day,” Foran says. “It’s just blowing up. We can’t keep up with the emails.”
Foran said that the phone in the parade committee office is ringing off the hook: “We get the craziest questions, people call and want to know what weekend to come.”
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According to the parade organizer, the weekend date means more people can participate in the parade.
“There’s going to be a record number of participants and bands,” Foran says. “We’ve got 60-plus bands and about 15,000 people marching in the parade.”
“We’ve got very large contingents of military branches,” Foran says. “We’ll have the 3rd ID, the Rangers, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard, including the admiral from our district of the Coast Guard.”
“We’ve got two sets of Clydesdale horses,” Foran says. “One set is the famous Budweiser Clydesdales and the other is from Express Employment Staffing Professionals. A pipe and drum band are also jetting in from Dublin.
“We’ve got another band, the Irish Air Corps, coming from Ontario, Canada,” Foran says. “We’ve also got the famous pipes and drums from New Jersey, the Shillelaghs.”
The celebration kicks off in February with an Irish festival. Since 1983 the committee also publish a special parade magazine.
“There’s something going on every weekend, including five to six functions a day with the marshal,” says Moran.
Once the weekend celebrations are over, preparations will begin for 2013.
“We’ll see problems in the parade and we take notes. All the TV stations send us disks that we study and try to make the parade better,” said Foran.
“It’s kind of like Christmas,” Foran said. “I enjoy it, and it makes me proud of my heritage.”
“I’m looking forward to everyone taking their political hats off and for one day, coming to have fun.
Concluding: “Be safe and enjoy yourself with your family.”
For more information visit www.savannahsaintpatricksday.com
Visit our special St. Patrick's Day section here
7 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Murph46 | Mar 18, 2012, 10:50 PM EDT
Savannah please send forthwith your successful method of running a parade to every city,with cities shutting down parades ,shootings at others it is becoming easier for people to blame the 12% Irish in America for the faults of their parades and terminate them .You obviously do it right-congratulations and help!!!!!!!!
TheOldPerfessor | Mar 17, 2012, 09:21 PM EDT
Hi Savannah - love your city. Drove a thousand miles last year to walk our dog in Forsythe Park. Still dream about the last meal I had at Mrs. Wilkes'. Now calling y'alls bigger than us must have been the result of too much happy juice of some sort. Now just go out and raise some hell and don't worry about it.
GeorgeDillon | Mar 17, 2012, 02:07 PM EDT
Savannah is my local parade. It's not very authentically Irish, but then again even it has more Irish culture than the Dublin parade, and probably has more Irish participants too.
Neiler25 | Mar 17, 2012, 11:36 AM EDT
Sounds brilliant! I'm a Sligo man myself but I hope to get to America this year and also for St Patricks day next year! I hear its the best place to be in the world on that day, and no shortage of drinks either! Enjoy your day. Slainte.
pounder | Mar 17, 2012, 11:02 AM EDT
Savannah has a strong Irish presence.Walk around its city center and you will find not only many Irish names on the store fronts but also a cathedral(St.Johns) and more Catholic churches than one would imagine in a small Southern city.Savannah was a port of call for Irish immigrants for many years.I should know,my Sligo mothers first step on American soil was in Savannah,where she married my father,a cork man.Also, that parade is awesome,even if they don't allow te NYPD anymore.
Murph46 | Mar 17, 2012, 09:38 AM EDT
I must go South to judge!
JimmieM | Mar 17, 2012, 08:06 AM EDT
Well I think Saint Patrick would be astounded that two grand cities would be fighting over who had the largest parade in his memory?....