Heard on the Radio: The Long & Short of Small & Short St Patrick's Day Parades

While preparing a radio feature about St. Patrick's Day, I did a Google search last week seeking info about the "Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade". I had recalled hearing about a town in Missouri claiming the distinction, and wanted to contrast that shortest parade to their more conventional counterparts in places such as New York.

Interestingly, my Google revealed that these days a number of communities claim to be host to the "Smallest St. Patrick's Day Parade". I wanted to get to the bottom of this confusing and potentially explosive issue.

One of the locations was in Ireland, and we leave that to a separate discussion (mainly because I was not about to start making phone calls to Ireland to find out how along a parade was).

Here's what our domestic investigation found:

* Boulder, CO - What is touted as "The World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade" is one block long. Event organizers, Conor O'Neill's, said they did not know how long it was - they repeated that it was a block long. "No one has ever asked before - besides we're very busy right now with lunch", deflected an event spokesperson. The Boulder event took place before St. Patrick's Day, Sunday March 12 and turned into a street festival after the parade including childrens' games, Irish pipe bands and dancers. There was also a bake off using "Irish" spirits promoted by the restaurant.

* Hot Springs, AR - "The First Ever Third Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day" takes place on St. Patrick's Day. It features unique floats and entries such as the world's largest leprechan, Irish Belly Dancers and the Irish Order of Elvi (Elvis Presley look-alikes). The parade takes place on Bridge Street in downtown Hot Springs. There are green fireworks, and an event spokesperson says that over 8,000 turn out. By the way, that event spokesperson also said that the length of the parade is one block, measuring out 98 feet.

* Enterprise, AL - "The Smallest St. Patrick's Day Parade" - 1,000 feet long - too long in length but it is indeed the smallest - just one pereon. That one person is the Grand Marshal. Others are invited to pay a nominal fee to be "honorary grand marshals". Many do so. In the age of the internet, requests come from all over.

* Blue Springs, MO - "The Shortest and Smallest" is in fact the longest running (29 years) and aparrently the acutual shortest (66 feet). Don't know about the smallest - from here it looks like Alabama has it. The parade in Blue Springs begins at Lillian's Floral Design/Soda Jo's in the old Lowe's Drugstore at 112 West Main. The parade, on St. Patrick's Day, ends directly across the street at the Gridiron Lounge, 1123 W. Main. Ther are coffee and donuts before, and a celebration following.

The winners:
Shortest: Blue Spring, MO
Smallest: Enterprise, AL
Fun: All.