By Allie Nigro, Features Editor
After three years of postponements, Kelly’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is scheduled to make its return on Sunday, March 20.
The parade has brought the Outer Banks community together for over 30 years. Parade founder Mike Kelly is excited to get everyone back together, and hoping for an astounding audience.
“I’m thinking this will be our biggest parade we’ve ever had, and the reason being is that when you have a parade year after year, you don’t miss it quite as much,” Kelly said. “But now that it’s been three years since we’ve had a parade, everyone wants to go.”
The parade includes everything from firetrucks to floats made by local Outer Banks restaurants and businesses. Anyone is welcome to join and Kelly encourages people to participate on any level.
“In our parade, we allow the guy who drives the trash truck, the girls who are in a club, dancers, restaurants, all the firetrucks,” Kelly said. “You don’t see those in the Macy’s (Thanksgiving) Day Parade, but you do in the Kelly’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, because that’s what the community’s about.”
Mary Ann Newman has been coordinating the parade since 1995 and has been taking applications from various Outer Banks groups and businesses. The parade lasts about one and a half to two hours. The lineup of participants can be a mile long.
The parade route is the same this year, starting at Bladen Street in Nags Head and ending at Driftwood Street. It will begin at 1 on that Sunday.
With the variety the parade has to offer, Kelly credits the event’s initial success to its appeal to kids of all ages.
“The success was initially because so many kids wanted to go, and it got to be a really good time,” Kelly said.
Various First Flight students have gone to the parade since they were young, as well as participated in the parade itself. Senior Allegra Mackenzie-Reece has fond memories of watching the parade as a child.
“I remember just getting a lot of candy, and the little gold coins they would throw, those were always fun,” Mackenzie-Reece said.
A few years ago, Mackenzie-Reece, along with her family, who own the Outer Banks Brewing Station, participated in the parade, throwing candy out of their company van.
“It’s fun receiving the candy, but it’s so much fun when you have the actual candy and you get to throw it to people and they get all excited,” Mackenzie-Reece said. “I loved doing that.”
Senior Hannah Montgomery participated in the parade with her dance studio, Outer Banks Centre for Dance, and enjoyed getting to work on the studio’s float and perfect their routine.
“My dance studio does Irish Dance, so we would wear our Irish costumes and gillies, which are Irish dance shoes, and dance through the entire parade,” Montgomery said. “It was super exhausting and freezing cold and my face would always hurt from smiling the whole time, but everyone in the crowd loved it and would be yelling and getting all excited, which definitely made it worth it.”
Among the sea of people, the parade always provides an opportunity to meet new faces and catch up with old friends.
“After a couple years of going, next thing you know you keep going to the same parade, in the same area, sitting with the same friends,” Kelly said. “You get to see a whole lot of people and renew acquaintances.”
This year, the FFHS marching band will be performing in the parade, playing a variety of songs and popular tunes. The marching band has not participated in the parade for the last few years, and this will be band director Robert Lamberg’s first time being a part of the holiday event.
“I’ve never done this parade, so it’s going to be a new experience for me as well, so I’m excited,” Lamberg said.
Though three years have passed without the parade, the Outer Banks community will once again have the opportunity to come together for this Saint Patrick’s Day fun.
“It’s always been one of my favorite traditions and I’ve never missed one, whether I’ve danced in it or watched it,” Montgomery said.
Junior Allie Nigro can be reached at 23nigro20@daretolearn.org
