Events A Victime Of Coronavirus Concerns
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Blogger
There is a reason to be feeling green this year, but for a different reason. San Diego has cancelled all of its prime St. Patrick’s Day events. The parade, Irish Festival and Gaslamp block party ShamROCK will not take place in 2020 in response to the coronavirus crisis.
The cancelations came late in the week, two days before the events were to take place, Saturday, March 14. Even if officials did not cancel the event it could not take place because California Gov. Gavin Newsom put a halt to any gathering of more than 250 people in the entire state. This includes capacity in bars, by the way.
The Irish Congress of Southern California must unfortunately announce the cancellation of the Largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade west of Chicago.
After standing strong until the bitter end the Irish Congress of Southern California, in cooperation with the City of San Diego and the state of California, must cancel The 40th Annual San Diego St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This is necessary to help ensure the health and safety of the attendees, parade entries and volunteers.
The Irish Congress of Southern California would like to thank our sponsors; Guinness, The Friendly Sons of St Patrick, the Irish community and the entire city and county of San Diego for their continued support.
The Irish Congress of Southern California will keep the community of San Diego informed of any upcoming events to help support next year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade to be held on March, 13, 2021. We look forward to bouncing back and having a successful event in 2021. Thank you for your support!
ShamROCK issued this statement on Thursday and will be following up with one regarding the ticket policy for those who purchased their tickets in advance of the event:
Our loyal ShamROCKERS!
At the direction of California authorities, we must sadly announce, due to COVID-19 concerns, WE WILL NOT BE CELEBRATING SHAMROCK 2020.
While this decision comes at a time of universal uncertainty, we take the safety and health. of our guest, staff and community very seriously. We urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.
For 26 years, we have been jiggling with all of you on the streets of the Gaslamp with the proceeds benefitting the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation, a small non-profit dedicated to preserving and protecting the historic Gaslamp Quarter. The proceeds of ShamROCK are crucial to our ability to serve and create programming for the community and our visitors as well as to protect our historic Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House.
“It breaks our heart that after 26 years, we won’t be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with you but we will look forward to returning to the Gaslamp with more Irish festivals than ever before!
As you can imagine, we are processing this change in events as quickly as possible. We will have an official statement on the process for ticket options.
WISHING EVERYONE HEALTH AND GOODWILL AND SENDING EXTRA IRISH LOVE DURING THIS TIME.
So to party for St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday the 14th, there’s no events but there are Irish bars all over San Diego. Three in the Gaslamp are The Field, the Dubliner and Patrick’s.
Erin Go Brah!
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