Get ready to wear your green and celebrate Irish culture with Bayside’s first Saint Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday, March 24. 

The parade kicks off at 10 a.m. starting at 36th and ending at 41st avenue along Bell Boulevard –  home to a number of Irish bars and restaurants. Attendees will be able to enjoy the parade, along with great restaurant and bar specials along the corridor.

Parade participants include marching bands, community groups, and schools.

“We are so excited and happy to be participating,” said Ciara Green Erdman, owner and teacher of the Ciara Greene School of Irish Step Dancing. “Our dancers wait all year long to celebrate St. Patrick and show off their hours of hard work in learning and perfecting their amazing Irish Step Dancing skills.” 

The Bayside based dance studio is expecting 50 to 60 people to march, with student participants ranging in age from three to 16 years old.

Another group excited to be participating in the parade is Inis Fada Pipe and Drum Band. Twelve to 15 band members will march, playing pipes, snare, tenor, and base drums. 

“Many of us in the band – including myself – have lived or worked in Bayside and have deep connections with Bayside and Bell Blvd,” said John Graney, a piper in the band for 15 years. Our band has been around for nearly 60 years and we march in the same parades each year. Adding Bayside will be very exciting for us as it is close to our home base in Mineola, and familiar to so many of us. “We’re looking forward to meeting new people at Bayside, marching down Bell Blvd, and of course, the after party.”

Among other participants will be:

MTA PD Pipes and Drums, NYPD Marching Unit and color guard, Sword of Light, Molloy High School Pipes and Drums, AOH- Division #15- Whitestone, AOH/LAOH – Bayside # 13, Bayside Bombers Lacrosse Team, Boy Scouts Troops #75 and #85, County Cavan Association, County Down Association, County Mayo Society, County Roscommon Society, Fitzpatrick Academy of Irish Dance, Habitat for Humanity,Hispanic American Court Officers Association, Irish American Center of Queens Nassau, Suffolk and Mineola, Knights of Columbus -Dooley McGinvey, North Shore Animal Hospital, North West Bayside Civic Association, Sacred Heart Catholic Academy, Saint Francis Prep High School Irish Club, Shannon Gaels Gaelic Athletic Association and The Shield Institute.

The sponsoring organization for the parade is Bayside Saint Patrick’s Day Parade Inc.

For more information or to participate in the parade, visit their Facebook page here. The deadline for groups to send in an application to participate in the parade is March 1.

Photo credit: John Graney and Ciara Greene Erdman.