Holyoke, MA Saint Patrick's Day Parade
 | |
| Formation | 1952 |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Holyoke, Massachusetts |
| Website | http://holyokestpatricksdayparade.com |
The Holyoke, Massachusetts Saint Patrick's Day Parade is one of the largest in the United States of America. The parade is hosted every year on the Sunday of the week that has Saint Patrick's Day. The Holyoke Saint Patrick's Day Parade has been said to be in the top 3 biggest parades in the country, surpassed by New York City's Saint Patrick's Day Parade and Boston's Saint Patrick's Day Parade. Each parade usually attracts around 400,000 spectators from all over the United States of America. Spectator counts have dropped over the years, as in the '60s and early '70s the parade attracted around 1,000,000 spectators.[1]
This is a graph on spectator counts for the parade.
| Number of Spectators (estimated) | Year |
|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | 1960s |
| 900,000 | 1970s |
| 700,000 | 1980s |
| 550,000 | 1990s |
| 420,000 | 2000s |
| 400,000 | 2016 (present day) |
Formation
In 1952 the first Holyoke Saint Patrick's Day Parade was hosted, and the Holyoke Saint Patrick's Parade Committee was formed. The parade was started because of a vast amount of the Holyoke, Massachusetts population was Irish. Still to this day, many people in Holyoke are Irish.
Event Concession Stands
The Holyoke Saint Patrick's Parade route fills up with concession stands every year. They are all from across the country which brings many different types of foods. You are able to get burgers and hotdogs to fried dough and corn dogs.