St Patrick Day Parade

You can’t see anything unless you’re a) super-​tall or b) at the front of the crowd. I was neither, so I got to spend the parade staring at some dude’s back. He was both tall AND in the front, which confused me at first, but then I realized that he was, in fact, a jerk, so everything made sense.
The floats weren’t all that great, they’ll let just anyone walk, so it’s more like an extended commercial than a parade, and my god, if you’ve seen one marching band, you’ve seen them all, but this parade’s going to show you all of them, just to be sure.
Considering the hassle of getting to this (via public transit — I would not ever drive to this), I don’t think we’ll be back. Just not a fun way to spend the morning.

I can’t believe I almost moved away from Boston without ever going to this.
I finally went this year, and it was a super fun time. My friends have a house right on the parade route, so it was pretty ideal — we could go inside to grab a snack or a beer or to use the bathroom. But even without this amenity, I think it would be pretty fun. The parade route is long enough (4 – 5 miles) that it wasn’t too crowded or difficult to find a place to stand and be able to see, or even to snag a bit of sidewalk and set up some lawn chairs.
People have mentioned the randomness of some of the parade components. Yep, you’ll see Star Wars and Ghostbusters-​themed groups walking in between the bagpipers and colonial militiamen. Senator Scott Brown closely following a guy dressed up like St. Patrick himself and blessing the crowd. Probably less than half the parade actually has anything to do with St. Patrick’s Day or Ireland, but the crowds on the sidelines make up for it. I have never seen so many people wearing green. Funny hats, funny slogans on T-​shirts, lots of public drinking… People weren’t as rowdy as I thought they would be, really more on the happy-​drunk than the belligerent-​drunk end of the spectrum. Lots of families and neighbors getting to know each other, passing around cookies with green frosting and brownies with Guinness in the dough and Bailey’s in the frosting.
I’d go so far as to say every Boston resident should experience this at least once.
If you go, plan on being down there the whole day. The parade started at 1 and when we got off the train around 11, it was already packed with so many people that you couldn’t even walk in the train station when the train first emptied, you had to wait a couple of minutes for the crowds to clear out. And when we got back on the train around 4:30, there was a line about a block long of people backed up just waiting to get into the Broadway T station. Driving isn’t any better – in fact, I’d argue that it’s worse. People double-​park on all the streets and they set up police barriers along the side streets, so once you’re there you would basically have to stay until the parade is over and the streets are cleaned and reopened to traffic. All in all, it was extremely smooth and hassle-​free considering the size of the crowd.

So last year we had gone here for the parade!
At first it looked promising. But sadly I have to report the opposite.
When you go to the parade make sure you get there early! If you want good seats anyways. It does spread out over a good part of the city. So there should be a lot of seating. We had to move a few times to find a good spot. When we did finally find that spot we could see. We still stood in the back so all of the kids could see in front of us!
As far as whats in the parade they had some strange bands, Asian dragons, Car dealerships, Star wars characters, and people running for office! All items that do not say «ST Patrick’s day» to me… I know they do this to spread the feeling of equality but lets be honest. Its an Irish holiday folks. It just did not sit well with me.
You will also find people selling items on the street for the parade. It’s not cheap. $ 35 T-​shirts, $ 20 hats and randomly over priced toys for the kids. If you wanna dress up in lights make sure you buy them in town a head of time. This isn’t a concert people.
Parking is also an issue. Then again its an issue in the city no matter where you are. Park a Alewife and T. Its only $ 7 for the day. Rather than paying $ 30 to park and sit there for an hour trying to get out anyways. If you take the T in make sure you leave your self enough time to get there. It will be packed. So no matter what way you go you will be waiting for a bit. Why pay to sit in someones drive way? Plus Alewife is easy to get too!
So over all it had more of a normal parade feel rather than a ST Patrick’s day parade. Still fun but I wouldn’t go outta my way to go it if you have gone before.
2/5…I was really hoping for better to be honest.

I love a parade. I also LOVE St Patrick’s Day. This is my first time to Boston and I have only been to one other St Patrick’s Day parade in my life (New Orleans), but I had a blast! The weather was AMAZING so that was a huge part of the good time. There was a long lull at the beginning that left is wondering if we had missed it or if it was ever coming but eventually the fire and police departments, Marines, Army, Navy, high school marching bands, bagpipe bands, etc started flowing through the streets.
The train ride down to the parade was insanely packed and our conductor kept reminding us about the «record crowds» over the speaker. Apparently they don’t normally do that, so it was pretty amusing.
The only problem I have with the Boston St Patty’s Parade was the lack of schwag. At the New Orleans parade I left with arms full of crap I had accumulated– carrots, potatoes, beads, stuffed animals, etc. Today I got nuthin’! But I had a blast!

Somewhat short and the wind was cold, but it was still fun. My wife got offered a shot of brandy (which she impressed the guys with by accepting it.) As they said, «it keeps the snakes away.»
I’m not sure what a bunch of Star Wars nerds in full regalia have to do with St. Patrick’s Day, but it was fun to take pictures of them. It also gave my wife the opportunity to use Triumph the Comic Insult Dog’s most famous line:
«Hey Darth Vader, which one of those buttons calls your mom to come pick you up after the parade.»