New Haven

St. Patrick's Day Parade Returns to New Haven

NBC Universal, Inc.

After being canceled two years in a row due to the pandemic, the St. Patrick’s Day parade is back in New Haven.

“Oh my gosh so excited,” said parade chairwoman Joanne Conlan.

She and city officials announced the parade's return last month, pointing to declining COVID numbers and the safety of outdoor events.

“And we absolutely wanted to make sure public safety is first,” Conlan said. “More important than the parade is making sure everybody is safe, so we feel comfortable, we feel good, and we’re ready to go.”

The parade committee kept up its work in the last two years even though their big event was sidelined.

“Just marching in place we called it. Trying to help out different restaurants and just lend our help that way since we couldn’t have the parade,” Conlan said. “And now, we’re just so excited to see the community come out.”

It has been several years since the St. Patrick's Day parade went through New Haven. Local businesses are preparing for the big day.

There could be up to 100,000 people back in the city along the parade route to see more than 100 groups marching through the streets. The day is a big one for those enjoying the event, and just as big for the bars and restaurants getting a financial boost.

“Crazy multiplied by a hundred,” said Trinity Bar owner Shane Carty.

He sees it as a return for businesses in New Haven, and a return for the Irish bar that hasn’t seen a St. Patrick’s Day parade in four years. A fire in 2017 shut them down for almost a year and a half. Then, the pandemic hit on their big day.

“We had everything in the basement ready to go -- beer, all the food in the kitchen. And then the plug got pulled the day before. And then we shut down the next day for four months I think it was,” Carty said.

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Now, they’re ready once again.

“We have live bands in here, we have live music, we’ll have a tent outside, the whole lot,” Carty added.

At Prime 16, it will be a first for bartender and server Bianca De Jesus.

“I’m so excited to like just serve more people so that they can be out and about and just interact with each other,” De Jesus said.

The parade stepped off at 1:30 p.m. It begins on Chapel Street at Sherman Avenue then continues on Chapel Street toward the Green. The route then turns left onto Church Street, down to Elm Street and disburses by Orange Street.

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