The original March 17 parade, famed internationally as one of the zaniest events anywhere, was postponed by the pandemic.
“The parade committee concluded that, with the virus showing no signs of abating as we had hoped it would, there was no safe way for us to bring 30,000 parade fans into downtown Hot Springs and still maintain the health and safety guidelines that every health and medical expert tells us are necessary if we’re to stop the virus,” said Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison, one of the founders of the annual parade that began in 2003. “We plan to resume the parade on March 17, 2021, and guarantee that it will be the biggest and best one we’ve ever held.”
“The City of Hot Springs earlier this year expanded the entertainment district that surrounds the parade route on Bridge Street, so we’ll have even more room for our fans to enjoy the 2021 parade,” he said.
“We hate the fact that we can’t in good conscience bring a huge crowd of folks safely into the downtown area this fall for the First Ever Second 17th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, but we know they’ll understand.”
“We did actually have a parade on March 17 this year, but it wasn’t the gigantic celebration we had planned,” said Bill Solleder, marketing director for Visit Hot Springs. “Actually, it was just me and fellow parade organizer, Alexis Hampo, who marched 98 feet on Bridge Street to maintain the tradition of holding our little parade on St. Patrick’s Day.”
The parade, founded in 2003, has gained international fame for attracting more than 30,000 fun-loving spectators to downtown Hot Springs to watch an array of celebrities, marchers, floats, strutters, Irish Elvis impersonators, dancers, Irish wolfhounds, waddlers and leprechauns march down 98-foot-long Bridge Street, the World’s Shortest Street in Everyday Use, according to Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
For more information contact Steve Arrison at 501-321-2027.