Barring lightning, Friday's First Ever 14th Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade will take place as scheduled, Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said Tuesday.
"We're not making any (contingency plans). It goes rain or shine," Arrison said. "I'm more concerned about the concert, than anything." Uncle Kracker will perform a free outdoor concert immediately after the parade, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday on Bridge Street in downtown Hot Springs. Live entertainment by Sad Daddy follows Uncle Kracker.
Arrison said the parade committee considered moving the concert into Horner Hall of the Hot Springs Convention Center, but decided "if it rains, it rains. That's why we're not doing ice rinks anymore," a reference to Visit Hot Springs' decision to abandon a public outdoor ice rink in the late 2000s because of successive warm winters.
"We've got umbrellas for the parade," Arrison said, and the latest forecast on Tuesday showed only a 42 percent chance of intermittent showers by the time of the concert.
"The parade will go ... I can deal with wet, but lightning is a problem," he said.
"It's St. Patrick's Day. We've had days where it snowed the day before. It rained right before and stopped. It's the luck of the Irish. With celebrities and everything, we can't delay it a day. By Wednesday, we'll have a better idea."
Visit Hot Springs on Tuesday announced that a DEW and Brew Garden, along with food trucks, have been added to the lineup of parade offerings.
The brew garden will be located on Wheeler Plaza, the grassy triangle at the west end of the convention center at the intersection of Malvern and Convention, and be covered by a tent.
Tim Herlihy, the global spokesman for Tullamore D.E.W. Irish whiskey, who was named the parade's first Toastmaster General this year, is bringing along a replica of a genuine Irish pub for the brew garden.
Arrison said the DEW and Brew Garden will open at 5 p.m. Thursday, and be open from 3 p.m. to midnight Friday.
The DEW and Brew Garden will have a variety of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages for sale, and Arrison said "strict enforcement of age restrictions will be in force" and ID cards will be checked.
Food trucks operated by Flossie's, Hot Rod Weiners and Little Penguin Tacos will begin operation at 3 p.m. Friday.
Local on 03/15/2017