Native companies are excited concerning the new date for the Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day Parade – WPXI

By jimadmin On Jul 15, 2021

PITTSBURGH – Erin go bragh: We now know when the Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day Parade starts.

After it was canceled in 2020 and postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, organizers said they would work towards holding it in the fall.

The thousands of people walking downtown for the Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day Parade are usually big bar, restaurant, and hotel business. But it’s the biggest day of the year for Mullaney Harp and Fiddle.

“Especially for us as an Irish pub this parade will be an elixir of life – it carries us all summer for a few months because it is usually slower,” explains Mullaney Harp and Fiddle owner David Regan.

Regan says his Irish pub has made a slow comeback since all COVID restrictions expired. At the heart of the pandemic, it was closed for months and even had to fire its bartenders and waiters.

“We were closed for a couple of months and then again in December, and people are still a little scared to come out, but I think they’re dying to come out now.”

Mack McCafferty chairs the Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day Committee. He says the parade was canceled due to COVID in 2020 and was postponed again in March of this year for the same reason.

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“I contacted the city in January and told them that we obviously couldn’t have the March parade. It’s too big a public safety issue, ”McCafferty explained. “We picked September 18th because it’s halfway to St. Patrick’s Day and decided to go with it and see what we can do.”

With the parade for September, they hope for warmer and drier weather.

McCafferty tells me that the parade typically brings 350,000 people to downtown Pittsburgh. His group says it’s the largest event in town every year, raising millions of dollars for the local economy.

The parade will now take place in downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday, September 18 at 10 a.m.

Almost a fifth of Pittsburgh residents claim to have Irish heritage, and the parade is one of the oldest in the country.