PHOTOS: Scranton St. Patrick’s Parade and party at The Bog, 03/09/19
With good weather and high spirits, the Scranton St. Patrick’s Parade took over downtown for the 58th year on Saturday, March 9, and NEPA Scene had a special guide to take us through the festivities this time.
Brian Craig, well-known in the area as the co-owner of The Bog in downtown Scranton, a drummer in several local bands over the years, and more recently a barber at Loyalty Barber Shop and Shave Parlor of Scranton across from The Bog, was diagnosed with cancer last year, but he didn’t want that to stop him from enjoying the annual tradition with his family as high school and string bands, bagpipers, dancers, Irish groups, various floats, balloons, rock bands, first responders and members of the military, representatives of local businesses and organizations, and more marched along the green path painted throughout the streets of downtown Scranton.
Bars and restaurants were teeming with thousands of partiers who started drinking as early as 9 a.m. As always, The Bog was packed wall-to-wall as Scranton “sleaze rock” band These Idol Hands played heavy songs from their debut album “Unbound” and Craig greeted friends and patrons who wouldn’t miss the opportunity to celebrate at this local institution and raise glasses with “Craiger.”
Scranton boasts that it has the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country (for cities with a population over 50,000), with over 12,000 participants and about 100,000 spectators annually. The Parade Day mass was held at St. Peter’s Cathedral at 10 a.m., and the Brian P. Kelly memorial two-mile footrace followed at 11 a.m. The parade stepped off in front of the church on Wyoming Avenue at 11:45 a.m. and made its way across the city for about three and a half hours before ending on North Washington Avenue.
See NEPA Scene’s photos from the 2017 Scranton St. Patrick’s Parade here. See photos of Idol Hands performing at The Bog last April here and at the Border Bar in Pittston last June here. Watch These Idol Hands’ first-ever interview in Episode 53 of the NEPA Scene Podcast:
