Preparations underway for St. Patrick’s Day Parade

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — The city is planning for snow ahead of this weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It says the event will go on regardless of the weather.

Event organizers say, even with snow coming, they feel lucky anyway, that a wee bit of snow won’t keep the parade from happening. This is the first time back for the beloved event in the last couple of years because of COVID.

"We are so excited to have the St. Patrick’s day out on the street, it’s going to be a wonderful time,” Kate McBride said, a parade committee board member.

Winter weather is brewing for Friday night into Saturday morning. The snow is scheduled to pile up before the 12:30 p.m. start. The city says it’s keeping tabs on it and will make sure to have roads plowed and cleared for folks to shamrock and roll.

"We’ll be salting, treating, and plowing and setting up barricades right until the parade starts, so we’ll be on it,” Rochester City Director of Operations, Karen St. Aubin said.

To ensure a safe event for everyone, the city is asking people to give plows and crews space to clean during the event if need be.

"Give us a little time, the parade starts at 12:30, so we want to make sure it’s good for everyone to come out and see so give us a little time, it will be cleared out and hopefully we’ll be having a great time again,” St. Aubin added.

Event organizers say the snow won’t dim the shine on their pot of gold. There’s a great lineup, full of dancers, bands, animals, and most importantly, a whole lot of green.

"We’re also going to have some surprise animals in the parade, and gold medalist Chris Lillis the skier, so we’re very excited about that,” parade organizer, Kate McBride said in excitement.

Rochestarians are just as excited to see what this year’s parade has in store, as well as watching the painting of the famous, green line down Main Street. This parade was one of the first large events to be canceled when COVID first hit in 2020. It was called off two days before showtime. McBride says being back almost three years later, feels like the luck of the Irish.

"We’re always so impressed that the parade just brings everyone together, from all walks of life in our community and it’s a wonderful time to come downtown bring business to downtown businesses, they could use it.”

The Hilton Garden Inn on Main Street is hosting parade participants this year, and they’re "greening from ear to ear" about it.

"It’s such a good feeling to have something that brings Rochester together, everyone from everywhere is coming here for this parade. It’s been a long time since people have been able to come together, and having people in the hotel is amazing to hear it,” Kasia Ravenvll said, the events and sales coordinator for the inn.

The parade starts at 1230 starting at East Avenue, and Alexander and will end near Main and Fitzhugh.