BUTTE — Parade organizers in Butte say that even though the annual St. Patrick's Day parade will fall on a Monday this year, they are still expecting a good turnout.
"It’s a big enough deal to where, Monday or not, we’re going to have it and it’s going to be good. Rain, shine, snow. It doesn’t matter. There will be a parade and we’re gonna have a nice time," says Pat Ryan, a board member of the Butte America Foundation, the organization in charge of the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
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Ryan describes a time when the famous parade was held on a day other than March 17.
"There was one year that the parade—a St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Sunday and they had the parade on a Saturday," says Ryan.
He says a huge crowd still showed up anyway.
"And so we were at Maloney’s and we all, we got a little caravan of cars and we all sang and drove around Uptown in a line," says Ryan.
He and Christy Hays Pickett, the general manager of KBMF, Butte's community radio station, are busy preparing the final touches for the parade. This year they are adding QR codes to the donation buckets in hopes of collecting donations from those who don't have cash on hand.
What does St. Patrick’s Day mean to Butte?
"Everything! You know, I think that with our Irish heritage and just how Butte likes to celebrate and how everyone from all over the state comes to participate, I think it’s a very big deal," says Christy Hays Pickett.
She says KBMF's volunteer disc jockeys will be out in force collecting donations that fund port-o-potties and insurance among other things that make the parade possible.
"For an early spring when the weather could be anything we have such an amazing turnout and participation and people love it," says Hays Pickett.
Last year, the St. Paddy's Day parade welcomed an estimated 30,000 parade goers.
"Last year was of course on a weekend and now we’re on a Monday so...it’s...we expect smaller numbers but it should still be a great celebration," says Ryan.
