Zombie leprechauns! A gigantic puppet version of Cheech Marin! Snakes!
The lineup is complete for the First Ever 17th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade March 17 on 98-foot Bridge Street, the World’s Shortest Street in Everyday Use.
Several new entries will join some familiar entries as the zany parade gets underway at 6:30 p.m.
The Marching Order of Irish Elvis Impersonators will be back. As will the marching Irish Wolfhounds from Mount Carmel and the roller derby queens and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. And, of course, the World’s Biggest Idaho Potato — all 72 feet of it — is back by popular demand. Marching tapdancers and the Mountain Pine High School Pride of the Red Devils marching band also will be back for encore performances.
Cheech Marin himself, one half of the famous comedy duo of Cheech & Chong, will be the official celebrity grand marshal and Danny (Machete) Trejo will be the official starter.
“For the first time in the history of the parade we received 40 approved entries by the end of January,” said Leysa Lowery, human resources director of Visit Hot Springs, which organizes the parade.
“We had to turn away several entries that came in the first two weeks of February,” Lowery said. “It's exciting that so many people want to be a part of this event.”
The parade is limited to 40 entries each year because of the logistics of cramming so much zaniness into 98 feet of Bridge Street.
“We did stretch the parade out a bit to include all the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, always a crowd favorite, and the Big Potato,” Lowery said. “What goes better with an Irish holiday than a giant potato!”
The zombie leprechauns will be part of an entry from Taco Mama that also will include a replica of Cheech & Chong’s Love Machine car. The gigantic Cheech puppet is being handled by Low Key Arts and Howlpop. The Engineering Department of Henderson State University is entering a miniature bus that features a leprechaun. There will be two separate floats depicting Saint Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland.
The Theta Pi Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi will stage a parody of the Cheech & Chong tune, “Mexican Americans.” Theirs will be called “Irish Americans.”
Also included this year will be characters from the Nickleodeon show PAW Patrol and Fredbird, the official mascot of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The festivities actually get underway Monday, March 16, when O’Kelley’s Pop Up Pub, the World’s Biggest Inflatable Irish Pub gets blown up — inflated with air — and opens for fun on the lawn of the Hot Springs Convention Center across Malvern Avenue from the parade route.
O’Kelley’s Pop Up Pub — named in honor of the parade’s very first grand marshal, the late Dick Kelley, President Bill Clinton’s stepfather — opens at 5 p.m. with a free music show featuring local favorites, Pink Piano Show, and beer, food, picnic tables and more. The entertainment district on Broadway will also open at that time.
Cliff Prowse and Susan Erwin — Pink Piano Show — are a married duo armed with a piano, fiddle and guitar. They are based in Little Rock.
At 7 p.m. Monday, March 16, musician Brian Martin will perform on the Bridge Street Stage as the opening act for a free public concert at 8 p.m. by the legendary Blues Traveler band.
On Tuesday, March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, O’Kelley’s Pub will open at 3 p.m. with a free karaoke contest at 4 p.m. with $500 in prizes.
Romancing The Stone, the annual contest to see who can make the most romantic approach to the Arkansas Blarney Stone, will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the stone’s location in front of the Convention Center across the intersection from the parade route. Cash prizes will be given in several categories for those who show up and romance the stone.
At 6:30 p.m. the First Ever 17th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade gets underway across the street.
Immediately after the parade will be a free public concert by Foghat.
The parade, which began in 2003, annually attracts crowds of upwards of 30,000 people to watch an insanely zany collection of marchers, strutters, dancers, Irish Elvis impersonators, waddlers, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and floats cover the 98-foot length of Bridge Street in the heart of downtown Hot Springs.
For more information call Steve Arrison at 501-321-2027.
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