Dallas city officials are aiming to revamp the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebrations into an upscale “family friendly event” that will honor the tradition and pageantry of the parade.
Pegasus News reports the annual parade, which attracts more than 100,000 green-clad revelers, has been renamed the Dallas St. Patrick's Parade & Festival.
Mayor Mike Rawlings at a City Hall press conference on Wednesday said, “I’m so pleased you’ve taken this step to make it a better parade for everybody.”
“The focus is more family-friendly, less of a focus on drinking," said city of Dallas Council Member Angela Hunt. "I think it's a very positive thing.”
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Hunt hopes the parade becomes a “more family-oriented” event and “less of an entirely adult-oriented, alcohol-centered festivity.”
Hunted added: “I talked to a guy from New York who comes here because he thinks we have one of the greatest parades anywhere. I think it has a much larger audience than just Dallas, so I don’t think you impact it negatively or minimize it or ignore its roots by branding it as a Dallas parade.”
Last year the Dallas parade made headlines when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban saved the parade after he wrote a check for $40,000 to cover costs. The “Shark Tank” star will once again contribute to the 2013 parade.
Read More: Dallas Mavs Mark Cuban makes bizarre remarks as he saves St. Patrick's Day parade
"I don't know that we could do [the parade] without him, I can say that," Greenville Avenue Area Business Association (GAABA) Vice President Tommy Donahue told Peagus.
Organizers have even introduced a new logo for the event. This year's parade will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 16. It will begin near Northwest Highway and will run south on Greenville Avenue to SMU Boulevard.
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