CLEVELAND — It's time to bust out your best green clothes and get ready to celebrate the luck of the Irish as Northeast Ohio marks St. Patrick's Day once again.
The 2023 Cleveland St. Patrick's Day Parade is set for Friday, March 17 at 1:04 p.m. Its theme is "A Salute to Irish American Athletes."
We plan to stream the St. Patrick's Day Parade live HERE.
Here's a guide to this year's parade route:
- It begins on Superior Avenue at East 18th Street.
- It will then travel southwest on Superior Avenue to West Roadway.
- The parade then heads northwest on West Roadway for one block before heading northeast on Rockwell Avenue.
- The parade ends at the intersection of Rockwell and Ontario.
Editor's note: Video in the player at the top of this story was originally published in a previous article on Feb. 3, 2023.
So where is the best place to watch the parade?
"We are often asked if there a 'best place' for bringing children to watch the Parade," according to the event's site. "We do not guarantee any locations are best, but generally speaking, the sidewalk areas from E. 18th Street through E. 12th/9th Streets are wider and offer more space for spectators."
The below map provides details of the parade road closures:
Parking restrictions will go into effect at 9 a.m. and run through 5 p.m. Traffic is expected to be heavy prior to and following the parade. Officers from both the Cleveland Division of Police and partnering law enforcement agencies will be detailed to the event for added security.
Cleveland's St. Patrick's Day Parade is a tradition that dates back more than 175 years.
"The very first Parade that we know about in Cleveland was organized in 1842 by the city’s third resident Catholic priest, Rev. Peter McLaughlin," according to the parade's site. "Fr. McLaughlin was a proponent of 'temperance,' or abstinence from alcohol, and his St. Patrick’s Day celebration began with mass at St. Mary’s on the Flats -- the only Catholic church in Cleveland’s city limits at that time -- continued with a Parade of the Catholic Temperance Society, and concluded with a banquet attended by friends and family members."
You can watch the entire 2022 St. Patrick's Day Parade in the video below. It was the first time in two years that Cleveland held the popular parade following cancellations in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Akron started their St. Patrick's Day celebration extra early as the city hosted its annual parade on Saturday, March 11.
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Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in an unrelated St. Patrick's Day story on March 25, 2022.