Despite the below zero forecast for this year’s parade, for many Montrealers including myself, ST. Patrick’s Day parade is the unofficial beginning of the “warm season”. And for many Montrealers including myself, by the time we’ve fully recuperated from the festivities, it will officially be spring.
If you haven’t yet experienced a St. Patrick’s Day parade, then you are in for something special. Aside from the marching bands, floats, people, what will amaze you the most is the festive feeling and the awareness that everyone is Irish for a day.
The annual parade which last year became victim to Montreal’s maze of construction and roadwork and was detoured to De Maisonneuve Boulevard returns to St. Catherine street this year.
This year’s parade, the oldest St. Patrick’s Day parade in Canada turns 196-years-old and is expected to have 20 floats, 25 bands and about 4,000 participants. It takes place this Sunday, March 17, at noon, from Fort and Ste-Catherine streets to Metcalfe Street.