St Pats Parade Mixes Pageantry & Politics

March 5, 2012 / Sunnyside & Woodside / Ethnic & Religious Culture / Queens Buzz. It was a beautiful March day, with temperatures in the 40's, as I made my way down to hear the speeches and watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside.

Last year they moved the parade gathering area up a few blocks from 43rd Street to 47th Street. The new location seems to provide a more communal gathering spot than in the middle of one of Sunnyside's busy intersections.

I was amazed at the turn out of potential NYC mayoral candidates. NYC Public Advocate Bill Di Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, NYC Comptroller John Liu were all in attendance. Notably absent was St Pat's For All Parade regular, City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn. After the parade we contacted her office to inquire why she was absent and were informed that she wasn't feeling well.

Click here to read more about our report on the St Pat's For All Parade in Sunnyside & Woodside Queens. The report includes a slide show with photos of the speakers, warm up performances and parade.

St Pat's Parade - Sunnyside & Woodside Map

Sunnyside / March 1, 2012. It's less than a week away, it tis. The annual St Pat's Parade festivities begin in Sunnyside on Sunday March 4th at 1 pm on Skillman Avenue at 47th Street. And the St Patrick's Day Parade ends in Woodside at 58th Street at about 3 pm.

The St Patrick's Day Parade festivities begin at 1 pm, and the parade begins at 2 pm at 47th and Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside. In 2010 we photographed Irish Step Dancers, a traditional Irish band, and the bag pipers. There were other acts too. Click here to view a map showing the route / map of the St Patrick's Day Parade in Sunnyside & Woodside.

St Pat's Parade 2011 Photos

Parade In Sunnyside, Woodside & Queens

March 7, 2011 / Sunnyside & Woodside / Queens Buzz. The St. Pat's For All Parade in Sunnyside marched up Skillman Avenue to Woodside in spite of a persistent rain and overcast skies. The event was headlined by the Mayor, the City Council Speaker, two city councilmen, a former police chief and a couple of guests from Ireland.

Of note was Christine Quinn's impassioned speech about eliminating discrimination. This speech was in response to a decision by the St. Patrick's Day Parade organizers in Staten Island to prohibit gays from marching in their parade. A similar decision was made about ten years ago by the Manhattan St. Patrick's Day parade organizers. The St. Pat's For All Parade in Sunnyside & Woodside does not prohibit gays from marching in its parade.

Given the inclement weather and shortened parade route [all parade routes have been shortened by 25% this year], there appeared to be far fewer parade watchers, but that didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirits [pun intended]. Shortly after the parade ended a great downpour came, telling us all that the parade was over. I guess our Irish guests brought along a bit of weather from the old country.

Click here to view a slide show of St Patrick's Day Parade photos 2011 in Sunnyside, Woodside & Queens.

St Pat's For All Parade Photos

St Pat's Day Parade Growing In Stature

Sunnyside / March 8, 2010. By all accounts the St Pat's Day Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside was a big success. We estimate that on this fine day the audience count was easily in the thousands [two to three thousand is our estimate]. This was significantly up verus last year, quite possibly due to the nice sunny weather which included temperatures in the fifties, although there was a cool breeze.

The St Pat's For All Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside has been in existence for eleven years now. It's interesting to note that the parade legacy only goes back little more than a decade, given that Sunnyside and Woodside were considered the Irish sections of Queens for the better part of the last century.

The parade began out of a controversy in the late nineties. The Manhattan St Pat's Day Parade forbid non-heterosexuals to march in their New York City parade. Click here to read the rest of this story including a slide show and a link to our album which contains many photos of the St Pat's Day Parade 2010 in Sunnyside and Woodside.

St Patrick's Day Parade Queens NY

St Pat's Parade Evolving Into People's Day Parade

Sunnyside & Woodside Queens NY / March 2008 and March 2009. Every first Sunday in March, the St Patrick's Day parade traverses Sunnyside and Woodside. These two neighborhoods, once the home to a large concentration of Irish immigrants [and still many today], has grown to become one of the more ethnically mixed sections of metro New York City. Hence when the Manhattan St Patrick's Day parade banned gays from marching in their parade, the Sunnyside / Woodside St Patrick's Day Parade filled in the breach by opening the parade to gays and anyone else who wished to join in celebrating Irish culture.

The following are brief reports of the parade the past two years including a photo slide show. Click here to view our report on the St Patrick's Day Parade in Sunnyside & Woodside Queens.