Friday, February 17, 2012

St. Pat's Day Parade set for March 17 in downtown Rolla



The 104th Annual St. Pat’s Day Parade, one of the oldest and most celebrated St. Pat’s Parades in the state of Missouri, will be held Saturday, March 17 at 11 a.m. on Pine Street in downtown Rolla.
After the parade, the first of four FREE concerts will begin at 1 p.m. in the Rolla Downtown Bandshell located at the corner of 9th and oak Streets near the railroad tracks. Come out and make sure St. Pat's ends with a bang, at a FREE Chevelle concert! The headliner takes the stage at 3:30 p.m. Terrapin Moon, a Grateful Dead tribute band, plays at 1 p.m., followed by Middle Class Rut and another band that is soon to be announced. 
Food and drinks will be available for purchase, and there will even be a beer garden. The show is open to the public. The concerts are being presented by the Missouri S&T Student Union Board & St. Pat's Celebration Committee. For more information, please contact Tim Chapman, Concert Director, at 618-567-1337, or visit http://stpats.mst.edu/events/concert.html. 
One unusual aspect of the St. Pat’s Parade is that the surface of Pine Street is actually painted green beginning at 6:30 a.m. the day of the parade. The St. Pat’s Street Painting Event, sponsored by the St. Pat’s Board, includes the volunteer services of several students from Missouri S&T that apply the water-based green paint with large mops, and buckets so Pine Street properly painted green for the parade later that morning at 11 a.m.
St. Pat’s Court will arrive at the bandshell in the City’s Downtown Festival Park on Wednesday, March 14 at 11:45 a.m. St. Pat’s Court Arrival begins at 11 a.m. at the south end of Pine Street where St. Pat will proceed through the downtown area to the bandshell at 11:45 a.m.
The St. Pat’s Coronation and Knighting Ceremony will be held on Friday, March 16 at 9 p.m. in Leach Theatre, located in the Castleman Hall Performing Arts Center on the Missouri S&T Campus at the corner of 10th and Main Street. 
The 104th St. Pat’s Grand Ball, which honors a great Rolla tradition, and is sponsored by Coterie of Missouri S&T, will bill held on Saturday, March 17 at the St. Pat’s Ballroom – Havener Center on the S&T campus. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with cocktails (cash bar) and dinner and dancing follow at 7 p.m. The campus and community are invited to celebrate this St. Patrick’s Day celebration. To make your reservations to attend, visit http://coterie.mst.edu/programs/StPatsBall.html.
The tradition of St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated in Rolla for over a century. St. Patrick, the patron saint of engineers, marked his first Rolla celebration in 1908 on what was then the Missouri School of Mines campus. Engineers rallied around St. Pat and began what is now one of the most noted and oldest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the nation.
For more information regarding the St. Pat’s Parade and related events and festivities, please visit the St. Pat’s Board homepage online at http://stpats.mst.edu/events.
  

2 comments:

Mandalynne said...

I am from Kansas City and planned or planning to drive down there to see Chevelle. I noticed on the weather news page (KY3). There is a chance of scattered Thunderstorms through out the day. Will the concert be Rain or shine?

Rob Hribar said...

The concert is rain or shine unless it's really REALLY bad.