Charlotte’s St. Patrick’s Day parade won’t return. ‘It makes us really sad,’ founders say
The Charlotte St. Patrick’s Day Parade that entertained 80,000 spectators along Tryon Street in uptown each year has been canceled, the couple who founded the parade a quarter-century ago said Friday.
Frank Hart, who started the parade with his wife, Linda Dyer Hart, cited his worsening Parkinson’s disease for ending the popular tradition. The parade would have celebrated its 25th year in March.
Hart, who is 68, was diagnosed with the disease about 1 1/2 years ago, he told The Charlotte Observer. Despite daily medical treatment and therapy, the condition has only worsened, he said.
The parade was last held in 2019, as the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the event the past two years.
Linda Dyer Hart said the 2020 version was two days from happening when Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio called to say the county had confirmed a COVID-19 case and advised that the parade be canceled.
The parade grew so popular across the country and overseas that more than half the spectators in the end came from elsewhere, Linda Dyer Hart said.
“New York, Chicago, Dublin, Ireland,” she said of some of the cities people traveled from with their families and friends.
The couple organized and operated the parade as a nonprofit organization, Charlotte St. Patrick’s Day Parade Foundation Inc.
“It was just fun,” Linda Dyer Hart said. “It brought happiness. It was the first festival coming out of the winter months. It became a tradition for many families. They held family reunions, birthday parties and other gatherings” the week of the parade.
“One family had 250 family members come in from all over,” she said, and (a contingent of) bus and transit workers came from Dublin, Ireland.”
The parade was held either the Saturday before or after St. Patrick’s Day, depending on which was closest to the holiday, because of restrictions on such gatherings on city streets during the work week, she said.
Linda Dyer Hart said the couple put feelers out with people they thought might consider taking over the parade, but had no luck.
Despite the parade website saying in bold wording that the parade is over, people, including many from out of state, have been calling to ask the date of the 25th annual event, she said.
Dyer Hart said she will always remember the happiness the parade brought families, the diverse ages and backgrounds of the crowd.
“It makes us really sad,” she said of having to fold the parade.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 2:54 PM.