Strings of balloon leprechauns, shamrock necklaces and a sea of green-clad revelers flooded downtown streets Saturday for the 48th annual Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
“This is crazy,” said Eric Hirt, as towering, two-story puppets lumbered down Blake Street and waved to the crowd. He and his wife navigated a stroller and two kids through the throng to watch the event for the first time.
Celtic dancers, bands of bagpipes and dozens of floats were all part of the day’s festivities. The sound of plastic noisemakers and cheers from the crowd mingled with fiddles playing Irish reels from parade floats.
A man on stilts, bedecked in a green jacket and shamrock-speckled pants, strode the parade route. He paused and joked with the crowd.
“In today’s parade it’s walk behind the Priuses,” he said, garnering laughs from those in ear shot.
Patty Ayala loves a parade.
“We are parade tailgaters,” Ayala said. She’s been coming for about a decade. Plopped in a chair behind a folding table stocked with burritos, green chile, and baked goodies, Ayala arrived at 7:15 a.m. to set up the food she’d been cooking for two days, she said. A group of 22 family members from Longmont, Colorado Springs and Lyons joined her.
A few nonprofit and political groups joined the fray, collecting donations or signatures on petitions.
Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson didn’t have an exact crowd count for the parade.
“It was one of the largest we’ve had in years,” Jackson said. “It went for blocks.”
Parade organizer Linda Garrison said the parade was larger than last year and estimates 215,000 people attended.
The crowd was a boon to businesses. The Sports Column, near Coors Field, opened early to a steady stream of paradegoers, said Lizzie Croswhite, a waitress at the restaurant. She expected the bar to be too packed to walk through later in the day.
Dressed in a kilt and green top hat, local musician Scott “ScMcD” McDermott was pleased with the celebration. He recently moved to Colorado and saw nothing close to Saturday’s doings in his previous city. He worked an overnight shift, kilt in tow, then made for Blake Street.
“Denver has a very prime St. Patty’s Day Parade.”
Heather McWilliams: 303-954-1698 or hmcwilliams@denverpost.com
