All those Irish lads and lasses will be parading down a different route this St. Paddy's Day in Sioux Falls.

The city has announced new rules this year that will re-route the annual downtown St. Patrick's Day Parade. In year's past, the parade marched down multiple downtown streets, this year, the parade route will remain just on Phillips Avenue.

The change in the route stems from concerns from downtown businesses, residents and patrons.

According to Valerie Willson with the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, "We had to shorten our route, for the businesses and residents of downtown, to make the parade only an hour long compared to a longer time frame.”

The new plan still allowed for parade organizers to have their choice of what street they wanted the parade route on, but winding between two of the busiest streets in downtown Sioux Falls, Main and Phillips Avenues will no longer be allowed.

The main reason for the change was the old route just ended up shutting down too much of downtown Sioux Falls for too long of a period of time.

The majority of downtown businesses say they're fine with the plan to change the route, just as long as the parade remains a permanent fixture of downtown Sioux Falls.

Business owners love all the extra foot traffic the parade brings to the downtown area and would hate to see it go away.

The new St. Patty's Day Parade route will also have an effect on the "St. Patty’s Day Mile Run." In previous year's it traditionally ran north along Phillips Avenue and across 14th Street. It too must take a different route this year to maintain east-west access at 14th Street.

If you plan on going this year, the 37th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is slated for Saturday, March 12. The day's events kick off with the traditional Painting of the Shamrock at 9th Street and Phillips Avenue at 11:30 A.M. The parade itself starts at 2 P.M.

Source: Argus Leader


See Also:

More From KIKN-FM / Kickin' Country 99.1/100.5