CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New organizers taking over the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Charlotte are putting the infrastructure together to ensure the tradition continues for years to come. 

For the first time since 2019, marchers, floats, vendors and beer stations will take over Tryon Street in uptown on Saturday, March 11. The parade will start at 11 a.m. at Tryon and 9th Street and end on 3rd Street by 1 p.m. The parade will be followed by the St. Patrick's Day Festival, which lasts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Rory Wall is the general chairman of this year's parade. He took on the organizing in March 2022 after husband and wife, Linda Dyer Hart and Frank Hart, canceled the 2022 parade last minute because of health concerns. The Harts have a 20 year legacy of organizing the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Wall says when he took it over, there was no paperwork or information passed along. He reached out to St. Patrick's Day Parade personnel in New York and Savannah, Georgia to see how they have kept their respective celebrations going for centuries.

"They gave me all the literature, forms and documentation that they used, which saved me a lot of time in trying to build it up because we didn't have any information to go on," Wall said.

Wall has registered the Charlotte St. Patrick's Day Parade a 501(c)(3), created a board and follows bylaws.

"We could build a committee that was sustainable, so that when I decided to hang up the flag there would be enough folks behind me to say we're carrying it forward," Wall said.

He says as a nonprofit, any revenue made from the parade will go into funding the parade for the following year and be donated to the community. 

"It's just not just a party, a celebration of Irish culture and heritage, but it's an opportunity to also support the community's various charitable organizations."