Stamford St. Patrick's Day Parade: Noon Today

The organizer of the 18th annual Stamford St. Patrick's Day Parade flipped and extended the route this year to include bars and restaurants on a popular stretch of Main Street.

Set kick off at Columbus Park at 12 p.m. on Saturday March 9 (route is attached as PDF), the event is the city's second-largest parade after the Thanksgiving parade, said Michael Feighan, chairman of this weekend's festivities.

"That [Thanksgiving parade] is wonderful, they do a fabulous job, but it's a corporate event," Feighan said. "Our event includes a lot of social, academic, religious, community and athletic groups. We have the Greenwich Pipe Band, the public school marching bands, the youth athletic associations—hockey, soccer, lacrosse, Little League—Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Irish stepdancing schools. It's going to be terrific."

In advance of the parade, Patch visited some friendly faces along the route—at Tiernan's, Bradford's, Tigin (voted Best St. Paddy's Pub in last year's Patch Readers' Choice poll) and Brickhouse—and asked them to tell a good Irish joke (click play above to see what we got back).

Grand Marshal John Wayne Fox will lead the parade and organizers are encouraging onlookers to "walk the short block from the parade end to the Hibernian Hall on Grove Street where there will be an after parade party," according to the parade's official website.

"Parking can be found at the Bell Street garage, the Summer Street garage, and the Target garage if you cannot locate any on street parking," the website says.

We sincerely appreciate all the pubs whose staff participated in our video. Here's just a sampling of what they're offering Saturday:

• Tiernan's: Full Irish menu, irish dancers at 4 p.m., live bands all day, outdoor seating
• Brickhouse: 5 p.m. Jameson toast
• Bradford's: Guinness and Jameson specials
• Tigin: Soccer and rugby matches on early, heated tent at 12 p.m., Irish band 2 to 6 p.m., Irish dancers at 3 p.m.

See you there!

Editor's note: This article originally was published by Stamford Patch.