Why Is Sioux Falls a Great Place to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
In exactly 10 days (Thursday, March 17) one of Sioux Falls' favorite holidays comes roaring back in with a bang! Last year's canceled St. Patrick's Day parade left a lot of holiday revelers disappointed.
This year, the parade is on! (Saturday, March 19, 2 PM) The painting of the giant shamrock in downtown Sioux Falls? It's on. The parade Grand Marshall and Miss Shamrock? Chosen. Dyeing your hair green & painting shamrocks & leprechauns on your face? You decide.
Drinking a green beer (that I dye myself) in my mug from Cheers Bar in Boston. Yes, I will. Just one. But only because I make up for it by splurging on Irish Coffees!
Two years ago (before we all started staying home and 6 feet apart), those number-crunching eggheads at WalletHub were pitting 200 of America's largest cities against each other, in an effort to turn us all green with St. Patrick's Day fever!
Back then Sioux Falls came in 32nd out of 200 of the largest cities in the U.S., this year (2022), Sioux Falls is 62, which in my opinion, is still pretty good!
They ranked cities based on things like parades (Check), the number of parties, and celebrations per capita (You're kidding right? Check!), as well as Irish pubs, and restaurants (Check and check!).
They also looked at the number of citizens with Irish heritage. According to Zip Atlas, 10.08% of the population in Sioux Falls is of Irish heritage. Not including everyone who claims Irish heritage on St. Patrick's Day! (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)
About 54 percent of Americans plan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year according to the National Retail Federation. That breaks down to each of us being responsible for spending about $42 bucks on St. Patrick's Day. This means that total spending for 2022 will be right around $5.87 billion!
That's a lot of green to celebrate "the wearin' of the green" if you know what I mean!
This is why I'm saying, yes, Sioux Falls is a great place to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!
Agree? Disagree?
Sources: National Retail Federation, Zip Atlas, WalletHub