People, floats, music and the color green will fill the streets of central Muncie with life Saturday evening as the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade moves through the heart of downtown.
Vehicles will begin lining up at 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Muncie Central Fieldhouse and then will head south on Walnut St. at 6 p.m., according to downtownmuncie.org. It will then go east on Charles St. and return north via Mulberry St. to the Fieldhouse.
Participants in the parade include many organizations from Muncie.
“We have a variety of not-for-profits, businesses, neighborhood associations and Boy and Girl Scout troops,” said Cheryl Crowder, event coordinator of the Muncie Downtown Development Partnership.
Crowder said they had about 25 entries as of Wednesday.
The MDDP has been involved in the organization of the parade, which is sponsored by the Muncie Sanitary District program. Changes to the program and participants has differentiated throughout the 29 consecutive years of the parade.
Last year’s parade featured a competition among the floats and awarded a plaque for different categories including best small-business, best nonprofit and others. However, organizers did away with the contest this year to simplify the event to what Crowder describes as “just fun community gathering.”
The lack of local political campaigning that took place during the parade in previous years is also a switch that softens the competitive edge of the parade even more, according to Crowder.
“The biggest addition this year is the Muncie Southside High School marching band,” Crowder said. “We’re super excited to have them joining us.”
The marching band will feature not only a float, but music to add audible flare to the parade, Crowder said.
Prior to three years ago, the parade traditionally took place in the morning hours of St. Patrick’s Day, but that was changed by the MDDP.
“The 6 o’clock time frame works well for families to come out and have dinner with their kids and for people coming out to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with their green beer or wonderful dinners,” Crowder said. “It kind of rolls right from the parade to either dinner hour or the beginning of their partying for the weekend.”
