DALLAS - Around this time last year the beloved Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade was $40,000 short and in danger of being canceled till Mark Cuban cut a check. One year later, the parade that began rolling down Greenville in 1979 is no more, but in name only: As of today, it’s officially being rebranded as the Dallas St. Patrick’s Parade and Festival.
Desperados Mexican Restaurant’s Jake Levy, the parade’s organizer, says there won’t be any noticeable changes to parade-goers when it rolls down Greenville from, more or less, Park Lane to SMU Boulevard on March 16.
Let's get one thing straight. The Greenville Ave St Pat's Parade is the most fun non-sporting event in the state, hands down. What started as a pick-up truck parade of a handful of local businesses has evolved into 100,000 green-clad revelers who remain mostly oblivious to the hour-long procession of drunken bead-tossers. Since this region hasn't had Mardi Gras or big-time college football Saturdays, Dallas does this instead, for one glorious day. Without it, there are no silly postgame M Street house or block parties.
With that said, I'm a little relieved that, after the Greenville Avenue Area Business Association continually faced understandable logistical and financial troubles, it looks like it may get some reliable checkbooks behind it to solve problems like bathrooms, safety, etc. Selling out always comes with some hidden costs though, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if those slimy city leaders enforce some new city drinking or crowd control codes to essentially kill it, or move it entirely. Anyone can go to Uptown to check out token hots, the deck park for hipsters, White Rock to trip-up marathoning yuppies, Lowest Greenville to high-five college dropouts, or Deep Ellum to laugh at burnouts. Greenville Avenue, on one Saturday morning a year, is where everyone is on the same keg-standing, pole-dancing, freakshow of a team. Hopefully Dallas can get something right this time.
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