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Second Ever 17th Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade Now Scheduled for October 16-17 | Hot Springs National Park Arkansas

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Second Ever 17th Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade Now Scheduled for October 16-17

The Second Ever 17th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade and its accompanying festivities, will be held October 16 and 17 in downtown Hot Springs on world-famous 98-foot-long Bridge Street. The parade itself will be on October 17.

The original March 17 parade, famed internationally as one of the zaniest events anywhere, was affected by the COVID-19 virus pandemic.

““We did actually have a parade on March 17,” said Bill Solleder, marketing director for Visit Hot Springs. “But it wasn’t the gigantic celebration we had planned. 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 First Ever Second 17th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in October will be the huge blow-out that we would have held March 17 had the virus not intervened,” Solleder said. “We are already working to see if it’s possible to bring in the celebrities and participants who would have marched in March.

“We’ll be in touch with all of them in the coming days to see what their schedules will permit.”

“It will be the party of the year, maybe of the decade,” said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs and one of the founders of the parade, which began in 2003.

The parade 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, 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 Bill Solleder at 501-321-2027.

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