Thousands came out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the Village of Wappingers Falls on Saturday, but weather concerns kept away the really big crowds.

It's always risky holding the St. Patrick;'s Day parade so early in March. Unpredictable weather can really affect participation and crowd sizes. In years past I've seen anywhere from sparse crowds to record-setting amounts of people flooding the Village of Wappingers.

While there are no official statistics released at to how many spectators attend the parade each year, I've been in the parade every year for over two decades and can easily judge just how crowded it is from the street. As the parade winds down West Main street there are usually scattered pockets of large groups, but as the road bends over the falls and turns into to East Main Street, that's where the huge crowds usually line up.

During the busiest years, both sides of the street in the Village are flooded with people behind the barricades, celebrating and cheering as the parade rolls by. This year, the left side of the street was still moderately crowded, but almost no one was lined up on the right side, which was just recently opened to the public after last year's fire.

With tens of thousands of people still without power on Saturday and the weather being so windy and cold, it was a given that we wouldn't see any record-setting crowds, but it was still very impressive to see that so many people still decided to show up for the parade.

If you were there, we'd love to see your photos of the parade. Please share them on our Facebook page.

 

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