St. Patrick's Day Parade rescheduled for this fall in Pittsburgh

There will be a 2021 St. Patrick Day’s Parade in the Steel City after all.

Parade organizers announced Wednesday the St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been rescheduled for Saturday, Sept. 18 at 10 a.m.

Parade chairman Jeff “Mac” McCafferty had hoped to hold the parade last March on the traditional Saturday closest to St. Patrick’s Day but the covid-19 pandemic forced its postponement. There was no guarantee that it could be held at a later date this year but with more people getting vaccinated, the idea of a September parade has become a reality.

“My thinking was that I didn’t want to go, essentially, three years without a parade,” McCafferty said.

The 2020 St. Patrick’s Day parade was not held as the pandemic was in its early stages and much of society was shutting down in March of last year.

“I’m very excited about Sept. 18,” said Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O’Connor. “It’s good that the St. Patrick’s Day parade is going to be held in full swing in September. It’s very good for the city and my staff and I are very excited about it.”

‘Full-blown parade’

McCafferty said this will be a “full blown parade” and will not be scaled back in any way. Still, won’t it feel a little strange to be holding a St. Patrick’s Day parade in September?

“There was some trepidation about it. Some people thought it was a bad idea. It still might be a bad idea, I don’t know. But the weather will probably be better,” said McCafferty. “If the weather’s good we’ll get 350,000 people (Downtown).”

The parade will be competing with college football as Pitt will be hosting Western Michigan in a game kicking off at noon at Heinz Field.

McCafferty said the idea for a September St. Patrick’s Day Parade was hatched last winter.

“I figured that by September the pandemic would be sort of under control and more people would be vaccinated,” he said. “We didn’t want to put the public at risk. And now we’re two months out and we’re planning for a parade like we normally would.”