In another reality, this Saturday would have been the Wearin’ of the Green Parade.
While mounds of green beads won’t pile up on Perkins Road over the weekend, parade organizers are currently planning a “Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” event for September 2021. Details and dates are yet to be determined.
In the meantime, the St. Patrick’s Day celebration will continue this week on TV. “With so much sadness from the impact of the virus, we will televise a little happiness,” says Pat Shingleton, the parade’s founder and the president of The Parade Group LLC.
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WBRZ-Channel 2 will air a 90-minute special commemorating the parade’s 35-year history March 13-14 and March 17. Shingleton and his son, anchor Michael Shingleton, will co-host the segment.
The show will include new and archival footage, chronicling the parade’s history, its ties to Ireland and its impact on the community. It will revisit the one-year anniversary of the 2020 parade’s cancellation.
“We were the first event postponement, on March 12, 2020,” Shingleton recalls.
On the show, he’ll share what really happened in the three days leading up to the announcement, and how parade organizers and city officials responded as the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic and the world began locking down.
During an interview with Gov. John Bel Edwards and state health officials, the show’s co-hosts will discuss where the numbers need to be for large events to resume.
The Shingletons will also chat with several of the former grand marshals based in Killarney, where they’ve been under lockdown since Thanksgiving. Through Zoom interviews, they’ll discuss the pandemic in Ireland and reminisce about their own rides in the Baton Rouge parade.
Shingleton will sit down with Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves, who would have been last year’s grand marshal. They’ll talk about the restaurant chain’s pandemic response efforts.
As for Wearin’ of the Green in 2022?
“We have expectations of being back on our parade route March 19,” Shingleton says.
It would mark three years since the March parade last rolled—and by then, the celebration is likely to be grander than ever.
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When and where to catch the St. Patrick’s Day show:
Saturday, March 13
• 9:30 a.m. on WBRZ
• Noon and 5 p.m. on WBRZ+ 2.2, Cox 11, Eatel 2 or the station’s Roku App
Sunday, March 14
• 4 p.m. on WBRZ+ 2.2, Cox 11, Eatel 2 or the station’s Roku App
Wednesday, March 17 — St. Patrick’s Day
• 11 a.m. on WBRZ+ 2.2, Cox 11, Eatel 2 or the station’s Roku App