St. Patrick's Day Parade

This is a true New Orleanian parade with most of the tourists gone through the neighborhoods on New Orleans. Catch cabbages, lucky charms, beads and toys a plenty. This is a fun, family parade that strolls slow with plenty of walking krewes and more men in kilts than you can possibly imagine.

The St. Patrick's day parade is a lot of fun.While technically a parade, it has more of a street party/neighborhood party feel. This was my first year and I roamed the area between the Bulldog and Tracey's. All along the route were large groups of revelers having a great time. Everyone was happy, friendly, and many were a bit drunk. Apparently this parade requires an entire day of preparation (drinking).The parade itself was fun. It seemed very disorganized as random groups of marchers and floats would have huge gaps in between them, but it didn't matter. One thing to remember is that this is a "kissing parade". The marchers carry silk flowers that they will give to the ladies in exchange for a cheek kiss. It is harmless fun, but you've been warned. If you are a jealous dude, or a germaphobic girl, you may want to stay at home. I really enjoyed this parade. Since the crowd is mostly locals, everyone seemed friendly and in great spirits. While Mardi Gras has more throws, this parade may be my favorite.

I guess if I want to review parade I have to add them. I accidentally added my photos to the Block Party link but this for the actual parade.Please note that while this parade does not have a really long route, it takes forever because drunken men (mostly) are marching around handing out flowers, beads and sloppy kisses.There are traditional bands and floats and you can expect to catch a variety of food items from the parade, from cabbages to carrots to peanut butter crackers (Yay for me on that one). Plus I also caught a bar of Irish Spring and a little ziploc bag of random candy.The paraders are extra drunk and the crowd is happy and if the weather i great than it's an awesome parade.The most crowded areas are by bars on Magazine Street and not on St. Charles for this one.

I had heard stories of the St Patricks parade, throwing cabbages, kissing on the cheek for fake flowers, more of a roaming drunk fest of those in the parade, but never made it. Until this year. Parking is difficult to say the least. I squeezed in some 10 blocks away, made my way to Magazine Street, where this parade Is. Now, Mardi Gras just ended a couple of weeks ago, and this parade is the Saturday before the big day. I got to my spot about an hour and a half after the parade started, knowing it had probably not made it there yet, and I was right. I waited about another hour after that before the parade got to me. But, the people watching was wonderful. And there were the vendors pushing their wares on sale down the street, food trucks on every corner, and of course all of the restaurants on Magazine St. This parade is the Saturday before St Patrick's Day, which is convenient for those who have the weekends off.So why am I giving only 3 stars? Well, I'm not young and hot or old and cute. Therefore, no one wanted kisses for flowers from me. I'm sure if I was with a group, drunk, or had some kids, I would have gotten something, or at least not cared that I got nothing. But no one near me got much more than flowers as the people on the floats were not intent on handing anything out, they were too busy joking and drinking.The only gender neutral restrooms that I am aware of are port-a-johns that the city of New Orleans puts out.

Why the sudden drop of two stars? My past review still stands as a hell-of-a St. Patrick's "Day". I enjoy the stops along the way visiting friends, haunts, and house parties...Sometimes I should think about what I wrote previously. I did attempt to give up drinking for Lent, though the St. Patrick's Day Parade was my cheat day, but I wasn't going to overdo it. Just do it, over do it. Over do it, times 10. Or else you'll realize the "actual" parade is like a big green wtf. In regards to the actual parade, I hope no one takes this as a reflection of how epic and coordinated our Mardi Gras parades are. I have no doubt the schedule of this parade is slightly hampered by 200+ distinguished, mild-mannered men in kilts marching down the route. Floats eventually roll on by hurling a cornucopia of vegetables (the most dangerous being the deadly cabbage and occasionally the pointy carrot) or a grab bag of the most peculiar foods from ramen noodles to bagged pickles glugging around in their own juices, like smelly water balloons. I'm also on that fiance train, so I'm not really looking to have drunk men try to lay one on me for a paper flower. That choo choo can just keep on chuggin' along. I do like seeing my buds and father (when his Peach Schnapps doesn't get the best of him), but this year I either didn't see them, or I highly doubt they remembered seeing me. There are times when all this is so incredibly endearing...alas, I should've drank.so.much.more.I have friends that ride on the floats that love it and think it's the only way to go, so maybe next year I'll stock up on Jello shots and the candy that was left at the bottom of the trick-or-treat pail from the year before. I just can't imagine willingly chucking massive amounts of veggies ("ew, gross", says the five-year-old and twenty-five-year-old version of myself) at children that are still high off plushy good good and giants beads from Mardi Gras. Call me cynical, call me overly sober, but while I enjoy the day, the parade should really organize the chaos a wee bit better. 'Til next year, y'all.

This is one of my absolute favorite days of the year. It is a non-stop fun and insane time that goes and goes and goes. I have more fun at this parade than any parades during Mardi Gras. There are so many side parties and other things going on in addition to the main parade that it is just non-stop fun that goes on late into the night. Besides my name is Shannon so the ladies have to kiss me with an Irish name like that.

I feel like New Orleanian's motto should be "Can't stop, Won't stop" Just having survived Mardi Gras mayhem...we get hit with more parades. No complaint here! St. Patrick's is one of my favorites! This is more of a block (ok a few blocks) party with the parade as an after thought. The parade didn't hit Magazine Street until 2-ish and by that time the crowd had been day-drinking for quite some time. If you can walk or ride your bike, do so. Parking is crazy this day! We chose to grab an early lunch at McClure's and ride our bikes down Magazine. We posted up outside the Rendezvous and enjoyed green beer and green jello shots. By time the walking clubs of men in the parade reach you, most of them are waxed. Just makes people watching all the more enjoyable I say! But if you want fake flowers, be prepared to kiss some cheeks!Word to the wise: Pace yourselves and wear green!

Not the best NOLA parade, but worth a look if you want some of that classic American-Irish partying in the streets of a party city. You'll find lots of locals since it's not in the French Quarter. With that said, it's nice to check out Magazine Street in general--you can definitely find some great spots you never would have if you stay in the touristy areas.

A parade in New Orleans evokes a certain mental picture -- huge intricately decorated floats with krewes working on them all year, brass bands and dancing troupes, marching people in sync with flashy uniforms and of course, huge crowds jostling for attention. That is not this parade. This parade is a bunch of drunken irishmen in tuxes, drunk as they should be from jello shots and whiskey before 10am, giving out flowers and kisses and marching-ish down a parade route. Don't get me wrong -- there are floats and some sense of orchestration but this parade is FUN! it doesn't take itself so damn seriously -- people are marching and singing and playing music and finding their relatives on the sidelines for sips of daquiri and hugs from their kids. There's a sense of pure gaiety with a lot of booze and a side of 100 years of tradition thrown in. Skip Mardi Gras with all the silliness and come to St. Pats instead. Make sure that you get a room first as they can be very hard to come by and you might have to sleep in your car. But that's a whole 'nother story.

Had an awesome day with my family watching the Irish parade. I caught a few cabbages. I'm going to cook them up with some onions, boiled pig's feet, rice and corn pudding corn bread. Man I'm hungry now.