While Sunday, March 17, is St. Patrick’s Day, the annual Sedona St. Patrick’s Parade will be held this Saturday, March 9.
Since the parade moved off State Route 89A to Jordan Road in Uptown, annual estimated attendance ranges between 3,000 and 5,500, depending mainly on weather. Despite rain Friday, March 8, the skies will be sunny on Saturday with temperatures in the 50s.
Schoolchildren, businesses, clubs and nonprofit groups from around Sedona and the Verde Valley will be joined by public officials. Entrants come from as far away as Prescott and Flagstaff.
The parade and festival are not exclusive to Sedona residents and visitors. Sedona City Council members are often joined by mayors and council members from other communities.
Other highlights marching in the parade from around the region include the Camp Verde Cavalry, Southwest Skye Pipes & Drums, royalty from the Yavapai-Apache Nation, Sedona Fire District, U.S. Forest Service, Sedona Police Department, the Sedona Marine Corps League, Sedona Heritage Museum, Northern Arizona Celtic Heritage Society and dozens of local nonprofits, businesses, social clubs and community organizations.
This year’s Grand Marshal is Mike Raber, a 20-year employee of the city of Sedona.
In January 2017, the Sedona Main Street Program sunsetted, ending its decades-long management of the parade, turning it over to the Sedona Parks & Recreation Department, which hosted a seamless transition with only two months of lead time. This will be the Parks & Rec’s third time hosting the event and it looks as though everything will run just as smoothly as it has the last two years.
Northern Arizona University’s Parks and Recreation Management students do much of the grunt work to make sure the event goes off without a hitch for the several thousand attendees and they individually and collectively deserve thanks.
For residents wondering why the parade is held so early, NAU will be on spring break starting next week, which means many of these necessary volunteers will be out of town.
In Sedona’s early history, residents attended most of the city’s events as they served as the community’s only major gatherings. But as the city grew over the decades, communications technology improved and more and more activity occupied our attention and our weekends, these festivals drew a smaller percentage of the city’s residents.
Yet the Sedona St. Patrick’s Parade is one of the few events that remain to bring Sedona’s isolated cliques blend together allowing residents to gather and chat as equals. Being part Irish — of Clan McElwee from County Fermanagh in Ulster on my mother’s side — I always look forward to this celebration of my ancestry.
This year, I’ll be able to share my Celtic heritage with 9-month-old daughter as I don my Scottish kilt and bring her to her first St. Patrick’s celebration.
But you don’t have to have a drop of Irish blood to enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. Egalitarianism is a major component of a small-town community as well as one of the key facets of Irish culture: Everyone is equal in a Irish pub.
Please enjoy this year’s St. Patrick’s Parade on Saturday, March 9. Afterwards, send feedback to the city’s Parks & Recreation Department to help improve the festival in the years to come.
Sláinte mhaith to you and yours. Éirinn go Brách.
Crìsdean Sionnach Greum [Christopher Fox Graham]
Managing Editor
