Coronavirus Fears Lead To Precautionary Moves; Windy City Announces Postponement
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Nightlife Blogger
St. Patrick’s Day parades and celebrations have been canceled across the USA as city and government officials react to coronavirus fears.
Major St. Paddy’s parades that are decades-old traditions have been shelved, the bagpipes put away and the streets will be silent. Boston, New York City and Savannah, GA – three of the country’s biggest St. Patrick’s Day celebration cities – have canceled their events.
Chicago has announced its event, including the dyeing of the river green celebration, is postponed. Tho an alternative date has yet to be announced.
In Savannah, the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which takes place on the actual St. Paddy’s Day and not the Saturday before like in most other places, is the city’s signature event. It starts with the parade but, like a green beer when you get bumped by someone, gets spilled out all over the downtown squares and eventually onto River Street. It has been going on since 1824 and has only been canceled six times, once for the Civil War.
Nearly 300,000 people are at it, have such a good time that upon checking out of their hotels, make reservations for the next year For Savannah to cancel the event is Austin’s equivalent of canceling the South By Southwest music & entertainment festival.
In fact, it was that event that really set the stage for other cities to follow that lead and cancel events, regardless of how big they are to the local economy and what the mean to the people who go to them.
So if you want to go Irish in the USA on Saturday, March 14 or on the actual St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday the 17th, you’ll have to do it in an Irish bar. Assuming they are open, of course.
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