{"id":10488,"date":"2015-03-12T14:46:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T19:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=10488"},"modified":"2015-03-17T22:57:45","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T03:57:45","slug":"500000-revelers-expected-downtown-for-the-60th-st-patricks-day-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/500000-revelers-expected-downtown-for-the-60th-st-patricks-day-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"500,000 revelers expected downtown for the 60th St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Christine Smith<\/p>\n

Dust off your greenest attire, lads and lassies. St. Patrick\u2019s Day is upon us once again.<\/p>\n

With the holiday under a week away, Chicago prepares to go Irish for the day when it hosts its 60th<\/sup> annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade this Saturday.<\/p>\n

A parade that first graced the streets of downtown Chicago in 1955 to promote the culture of one of the city\u2019s largest immigrant communities, the Chicago St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade<\/a> has grown to include scores of high school bands from across the country, Irish dancers, an assortment of floats, musical leprechauns, and even the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re rockin\u2019 and rollin\u2019 here,\u201d said Jim Coyne, who is the business manager of the parade\u2019s sponsor, Chicago Plumbers Local 130 UA, and is this year\u2019s parade chairman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like when you plan a wedding,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s months and months of preparation\u2026but it\u2019ll be well worth it. We\u2019re going to put on a great parade.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with roughly 138,000\u00a0current Chicagoans claiming some sort of Irish ancestry according to the most recent U.S. census<\/a>, it is hardly surprising that many of this year\u2019s parade participants have a strong connection to the city\u2019s Irish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Irish and I love St. Patrick\u2019s Day,\u201d parade queen Lauren Corry said, \u201cso to me it\u2019s just important representing the Irish heritage and representing that Irish culture and being proud of where we came from\u2026and celebrating that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parade, which will begin at the intersection of Balbo Avenue and Columbus Drive and move six blocks north to Monroe Street, is expected to host more than 500,000 spectators and participants, including several high profile Illinois residents like Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Gov. Bruce Rauner and Sen. Dick Durbin.<\/p>\n

However, the parade does more than draw in famous faces and celebratory Chicagoans: It showcases the growth of Chicago\u2019s Irish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of hard to put into words,\u201d said Mary McCain, a professor at DePaul University who specializes in Irish studies, \u201cbut to think of how far this immigrant group has come\u2026 . It\u2019s not a unique situation in American history, but they put their own stamp on that immigrant story. It just all kind of comes together on St. Patrick\u2019s Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Chicago St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade is scheduled to take place on Saturday at noon. It will also be broadcast live for the first time on Chicago\u2019s ABC7.<\/p>\n

Photo at top:\u00a0Bagpipers, who participated in 2014’s St. Patrick’s Day\u00a0parade, will be returning again to walk in this year’s parade. (Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade\/Courtesy)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christine Smith Dust off your greenest attire, lads and lassies. St. Patrick\u2019s Day is upon us once again. With the holiday under a week away, Chicago prepares to go Irish for the day when it hosts its 60th annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade this Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":10508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,28,30,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-general-interest","category-public-affairs","category-winter-2015"],"yoast_head":"\n500,000 revelers expected downtown for the 60th St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/500000-revelers-expected-downtown-for-the-60th-st-patricks-day-parade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"500,000 revelers expected downtown for the 60th St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Christine Smith Dust off your greenest attire, lads and lassies. 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