ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - St. Patrick’s Day weekend 2020 was the beginning of the end when it came to event cancellations because of COVID-19.
St. Patrick’s Day Weekend usually brings thousands of visitors to Roanoke. Jaime Clark with Downtown Roanoke Inc. recalled the moment all of that changed last year.
“We had to make a super difficult decision to cancel our parade and festival with everything that was kind of kicking off in our area,” she said. “You know, there was a lot of concern over what was going on. So we had to make an unfortunate decision after a whole lot of planning and excitement.”
But as our WDBJ7 footage from that weekend last revealed, Roanoke wasn’t as quiet as it will be this year.
“The streets of downtown Roanoke were a sheet of green and gold as people celebrated St. Patrick’s Day despite the annual parade being canceled,” the reporter said.
“It didn’t bother us at all that the parade was canceled cause they didn’t cancel the fun,” Tim Piercy said last year during the celebration.
Fast forward one year later and downtown Roanoke and society as a whole has completely changed.
“I think at the time the entire world, the whole country didn’t really know what was coming for us and what kind of year 2020 was going to be,” Clark said. “But I think we’ve tried to make the best of it as have a lot of our businesses and organizations downtown.”
And even though there’s no parade and festival again this year, Downtown Roanoke Inc. is already planning fun spring and summer events as restrictions continue to ease.
“We’re feeling cautiously optimistic, but of course we’ll plan for if we have to pivot again. You just don’t know,” Clark said. “But you know, it’s a beautiful day and things are getting warmer and we’re excited about what’s to come this summer.”
Instead of the regular St. Patrick’s Day activities, DRI is encouraging folks to participate in its downtown Roanoke scavenger hunt that runs through March 21 and could win you $100.
Copyright 2021 WDBJ. All rights reserved.
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March 12, 2021 at 04:23PM
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St. Patrick's Day Weekend: One Year Later - WDBJ
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