CLEVELAND — In less than 24 hours, a green wave will take over downtown Cleveland, and thousands of people will be in Cleveland tomorrow celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day.
“People don’t know that Cleveland knows how to celebrate for St. Patrick’s Day the right way,” said Clevelander Dawn Fann.
Organizers said it’s one of the biggest Saint Paddy’s celebrations in the country.
“We've been told we're the biggest single day event in the city of Cleveland. I know we're the biggest day for the RTA, with the busses and trains,” said St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee Executive Director John Togher.
All day people will celebrate at many bars and restaurants around town, including McCarthy’s downtown.
It’s going to be a lot of fun, a lot of laughter, a lot of dancing and positive vibes. So, everyone's just happy to be here in Cleveland on that day,” said General Manager Symone Roper.
And the big event everyone looks forward to is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
“I'm from Cleveland and ever since high school it was the best thing to go to,” said Fann.
Thousands of people will start lining up well before noon for the 1 p.m. parade.
“The couple hundred thousand people that come down here every year show that it is important to support the Irish heritage, and we just want them to have a good time doing it,” said Togher.
Over 130 organizations will be in this year’s parade.
“We'll have fife and drums, pipe bands, 12 high school marching bands and that's the biggest amount of high school bands we've had in a long time,” said Togher.
Bars said they must prepare early to have one of their biggest weekends of the year.
Green beer will be flowing for the party of the year, which kicks off at the intersection between East 18th Street and Superior Avenue and ends at the intersection of Rockwell Avenue and Ontario Street.
