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Even through wind and snow, Syracusans’ excitement for St. Patrick’s Day couldn’t be stopped.

On Saturday, March 12, the 40th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade took place in downtown Syracuse. Spanning the broad stretch from Clinton Square down North Salina Street to the intersection between West Onondaga Street and South Salina Street, the sidewalks of downtown were packed with attendees decked out in green.

The 40th annual parade was the first Syracuse has seen in two years due to COVID-19 restrictions. Anxiety conflicted with the excitement of hosting the parade again, as an impending cold and windy weather forecast caused uncertainty among parade goers about the ability to attend — Albany postponed its St. Patrick’s Day parade because of the weather. Despite the wind chill, hundreds of local residents showed up to watch the parade kick off at noon.

Amber Joyce and her daughter Magnolia, two parade goers living in downtown Syracuse, bundled up and braved the cold to spend time at the event.

“We’ve lived downtown for just over a year and we wanted to be a part of the celebration,” Amber said. “Especially after it’s been closed down for so long, this is a big part of who we are as a community.”

The theme of this year’s parade was “Dance Through Downtown,” and it appropriately featured a plethora of Irish dancers from the Syracuse area. The planning committee also invited Irish dancers from the community to perform a collective step dance to kick off the parade in an attempt to set a record for the most dancers at one time in the Syracuse St. Patrick’s Parade.

Music and dance were certainly on display for the duration of the event. Highlights of the procession included dancers from several local Irish dance companies, including the Johnston School of Irish Dance, members of the Syracuse Scottish Pipe Band and a massive truck of Coleman’s Imported Green Beer. Representatives from Crouse Hospital, the Baldwinsville Marching Band and several local philanthropic organizations participated in the parade as well.

During the event, volunteers walked along the route providing hand warmers to parade goers. Nadine Jones, who roamed South Salina Street with a cart of St. Patrick’s Day themed merchandise, including Irish flags and shamrock-adorned memorabilia, offered another opportunity for viewers of the parade to keep themselves warm and buy novelty items and items. In Jones’ case, the cold was a help to her business, she said, as there weren’t many other vendors during the parade.

“The only people that showed up were me and my sister,” Jones said. “She has one side of the whole parade and I have the other.”

Parade festivities continued after the procession ended. The Marriott Syracuse Downtown hosted a post-parade celebration, featuring more live music, Irish dancers and food. Even though the parade was scheduled to end at 3 p.m., activities continued at the Marriott until 5 p.m. for parade attendees who wanted to keep the festivities going.

Janet Higgins, president of the Syracuse St. Patrick’s Parade, said she was excited to finally bring the parade back to the city after two years of cancellations. Though the cold was a deterrent for some patrons and parade acts, she said she was grateful for the city’s effort to clear the snow ahead of the event.

“I stayed at the hotel the night before and I could hear the snowplows starting at about four o’clock in the morning,” Higgins said. “It was a great parade, and we do live in central New York. … We’re one of the snowiest cities in the United States — we’ve got to be used to it.”

Published on March 20, 2022 at 8:32 pm