While Thursday, March 17, is St. Patrick’s Day, Sedona’s nearly annual St. Patrick’s Parade will be held this Saturday, March 12.
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 Irish-like weather on Thursday and Friday, March 10 and 11, the skies should be sunny on Saturday with temperatures in the 60s.
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 and others on horseback, bagpipes and drums, royalty from the Yavapai-Apache Nation, Sedona Fire District, U.S. Forest Service, Sedona Police Department, Sedona Marine Corps League, Sedona Heritage Museum, Northern Arizona Celtic Heritage Society and dozens of local nonprofits, businesses, social clubs and community organizations.
For the two decades before the city existed, the parade was hosted by Sedona merchants and then the Sedona Main Street Program, a nonprofit business organization, before its board voted to sunset itself in 2017 and hand the event over to the city of Sedona’s Parks & Recreation Department.
I write “nearly annual” because the parade was held every year since 1970 until city officials canceled the 50th anniversary parade set for March 14, 2020, at the last minute — the afternoon of March 12 — citing COVID-19 concerns. In 2021, staff canceled the parade without discussing the matter with any Sedona City Council members who, presumably, should have the final say over canceling a huge community event especially as COVID-19 vaccinations were becoming widespread and many Sedona merchants were hoping for some semblance of a return to normal.
The return appears to be this year as the city plans to run the 50th event now 52 years after the first one. Going forward, the “XXth annual” might need an asterisk to indicate the two years skipped. On the upside, two of the key staffers who made the call in 2021 quit the city in 2021.
Northern Arizona University’s Parks and Recreation Management students generally help, but bailed out this year, meaning their students won’t earn college credit, but that more pressure is on our city staff. If want to volunteer to help the short-handed staffers, email Dawn Norman at dnorman@sedonaaz. gov. We’re certain she’ll be thankful for the extra assistance.
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 and I’ll be celebrating it with members of my extended family this year.
You don’t have to have a drop of Irish blood to enjoy the St. Patrick’s Parade nor St. Patrick’s Day on March 17. 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 12. 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.
Christopher Fox Graham
