Lexington, KY -
Call it the luck of the Irish. The festival portion of the 2010 Alltech-Lexington St. Patrick's Parade and Festival will take place in the very center of Lexington - CentrePointe, that is; the pasture-like city block in the middle of downtown Lexington that is the would-be site of a high rise by that name.
"The Irish ask, they receive," chuckled CentrePointe developer Dudley Webb. "It's still our intent to make it available during the (World Equestrian) Games," he said. "Basically we've been sitting on it until then. But since it's a joint venture with the city, that made it somewhat different from some private enterprise coming in and asking."
"We're thrilled with it," said Bill Enright, the son of Irish immigrants and an organizer and sometimes leader of the event since its inception 31-years ago. The parade and festival are organized by the Bluegrass Irish Society in partnership with the city's Parks & Recreation Department. "We met with Dudley and his staff this morning. We are very appreciative of his agreeing to do this."
The festivities get underway at 11am on Saturday, March 13 in the Centrepointe block bounded by Main, Upper, Vine and Limestone Streets with a break for the parade at 1pm. Following the parade, the festival will resume and continue until 7pm. "It's a family fun activity and we want to get a maximum number of folks down there," Enright said. "We always do it downtown because we want to support downtown."
"There will be a (100 foot) tent for Irish entertainment and that will go on continually until 7 o'clock at night," said Enright, noting that there will be three separate tented spaces on the grassy block which is free of the buried cables and other obstructions beneath and on Courthouse Plaza. "There will be dancers and pipes and singers," he said, including the band Liam's Fancy, noted local flutist and piper John Skelton and the McTeggert Irish Dancers. "And we'll have an area for vendors of traditional Irish food and refreshments." With Alltech serving as prime sponsor, the company's brewing arm will have a major presence, and "we'll have other refreshments as well such as the traditional Irish beers."
Enright said it's one of those "win, win, wins. The city wins. The Webb Company's generosity will be recognized by the community, and we certainly are really appreciative of it."
Enright wanted to emphasize that although the event is primarily in celebration of all things Irish, it's open to everyone. "It's not just a 'kiss me, I'm Irish,' green beer thing. We invite all ethnic groups to join us in the parade and at the festival and celebrate their roots with us."
Meanwhile, have the Webbs opened a gate in the fence surrounding the CentrePointe site to anyone interested in holding an event on the property? "Until we can actually start construction of the Centrepointe project, the owners of this property will continue to consider requests for its temporary use by such appropriate service organizations on a case by case basis," Webb said. "Obviously, all such arrangements will have to satisfy both the requirements of the owners as well as those of the local regulatory authorities."
More information about the St. Patrick's Parade and Festival is available online at bluegrassirishsociety.org and lexingtonstpatsparade.org.