What started as a few kids parading around the block with baby carriage floats in 1979 has morphed into one of Chicago's most amazing neighborhood ethnic events, the South Side Irish Parade which is held each year on the Saturday before St. Patrick's day on South Western Avenue attracting 250,000 - 350,000 parade goers annually depending on the weather.
This year the sky was clear, the sun was out and the temperature was between 58 and 60 degrees F making perfect parade weather drawing about 350,000 parade goers.
While the Peter Files Blog has described the parade in the past, this marks our first attempt to give it some video coverage, primarily for our brethren in Eire who might not otherwise believe a text description of these shenanigans.
This video starts with some bagpipes and then covers just one block of the parade which stretches about a mile and a half. Still it gives a fair idea of the tenor (or bass drum) of this fun event. Note: the video is taken from the East (dry) side of Western Avenue, the West (wet) side may be covered next year. Even still, it is hard to grasp the scope of the parade except by helicopter which is out of the budget scope of the blog. (Donations cheerfully accepted!) Due to the extreme flatness of most of Chicago, South Western Avenue being a prime example, getting a view of the scale of the crowd was impossible. Hence this somewhat representative block.
As parades go The South Side Irish Parade is more comparable to Mobile Alabama's Mardi Gras People's Parade (held on Mardi Gras day - anyone can join in on foot or with a decorated bike, car, truck or whatever) than it is to a New Orleans Neighborhood Mardi Gras Parade or one of the Grand Krewe Parades.
While not captured on this film, after the official parade is over, many locals join the end of the parade walking the parade route, especially mothers with strollers, to avoid crowds on the sidewalks. This also gives small children the feeling of being in the parade.
Some items are thrown or given out to the crowd. Badges, green fireman hats, Jays potato chips. Unfortunately, the Guinness folks only played some U2 to shouts of "Where are your giveaways?" More video and photos can be found at [ Ссылка ] that is,The Peter Files Blog of Comedy Satire Jokes and Commentary.
Copyright 2007 by PJF and Peter of the Peter Files Blog of Comedy who was the Cameraman and Producer. All Rights Reserved.
