Popular 4th Avenue Spring Street Fair on March 22 – 24

There are two Street Fairs per year, one in Spring and one in the Winter. The next Street Fair is March 22, 23, 24, 2013. Hours are 10 am to 6pm each day. The Street Fair takes place between Ninth Street and University Blvd. along Fourth Avenue. Free to the public, the Fourth Avenue Street Fair brings together 400+ arts and crafts booths, 35+ food vendors, 2 stages, Community Stage North, Main Stage South, street musicians, food, jugglers, street performers, the ever so popular Free Tucson’s Children’s Museum’s kids hands-on-art Pavilion. There is face painting, balloons, demonstrations, sidewalk entertainment and tons of other fun activities.

This large street fair is definitely a Tucson tradition, and is very well attended, street to street crowds…twice a year.
And every year there are new booths and new art experiences. Check out the colorful map below:

Yesterday Sunday March 17, Winsett Park (near 316 N. 4th Avenue) was re-dedicated to the Mike Haggerty Plaza aka “The Mike”, as he was the so-called Honorary Mayor of 4th Avenue. Former Tucson Councilman Haggerty passed away last year on March 5, 2012. LD 10 State Rep. Bruce Wheeler spoke at the ceremony, as well as family & friends of the one term former Tucson Councilman. Mike’s widow Mimi Haggerty was in attendance as well. And they served green frosted cup cakes in celebration of Mike and St. Patrick’s Day.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival on St. Patrick’s Day this year

St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival of Tucson

Sunday, March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day)

Armory Park, 10 AM
Downtown (SE corner of E. 12th Street and S. 6th Avenue, south of Broadway)

A St Patrick’s Day Event

Sunday, March 17, downtown Tucson will come alive with Celtic tradition as the 26th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival brings the Irish spirit to Tucson!​

​​​The St. Patrick’s Day Festival opens at 10:00 a.m. Sunday, March 17 at Armory Park (Military Plaza) on S. 6th Ave, in Downtown, with live Irish music, dancers, entertainment, a children’s game area, and food and merchandise vendors. Irish organizations, ethnic and cultural tables will be set up in the park as well. Festival Schedule TBA.​

​​The one hour Parade will begin at 11:00 A.M. at Pennington & Stone Avenue, making its way through Downtown – around the Presidio – down Main – through the heart of Tucson. ​

​This years Grand Marshal will be Jim Critchley, Tucson Fire Chief.​

​The 2013 parade will feature marchers including floats, military units, local dignitaries, media and entertainment personalities and civic, cultural and social groups. The Tucson parade has a 26-year history and provides a good time for the entire family!

This year this parade/festival is on March 17, 2013 – St. Patrick’s Day. In the past it has been held on a Sunday in March, but not always on March 17, due to scheduling and calendar dates.

Having been “adopted” by an Irish Catholic family of Connecticut while in law school, I learned to bake Irish soda bread and enjoy “all things Irish” excluding Irish whiskey. My husband and I even honeymooned in Ireland, so I have been going to this festival & parade for years now. And I do believe in leprechauns, and the luck of the Irish.

And if you crave corned beef & cabbage & can’t find it at the festival, walk on over a few blocks to new Playground restaurant, which is having an all you can eat offer starting at 11 a.m. at 278 E. Congress, SW corner of E. Congress St. and N. 5th Avenue. Only $5 with a wristband, what a deal for lots of delicious corned beef & cabbage. They’re open to 2 a.m. on Sundays.

UPDATE: change in parade route to Start at E. 16th St. x Stone, north to Ochoa, then east via Scott Ave. to Armory Park. See comment below for link to new map of parade route.

Be Irish at 25th Annual St. Patrick’s Day parade on St. Patrick’s Day

The 2012 parade will feature marchers including floats, military units, local dignitaries, media and entertainment personalities and civic, cultural and social groups. The Tucson parade has a 25-year history and provides a good time for the entire family.

The St. Patrick’s Day Festival opens at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, March 17 at El Presidio Park Plaza, 160 W. Alameda Street, with live Irish music, dancers, entertainment, a children’s game area, and food and merchandise vendors. Irish organizations, ethnic and cultural tables will be set up in the park as well. Festival Schedule TBA.

The one hour Parade will begin at 11:00 A.M. at Pennington & Stone Avenue, making its way through Downtown – around the Presidio – down Main – through the heart of Tucson.

The 2012 parade and Festival theme, “Honoring our Founders”, will pay tribute to our parade founders, celebrate their vision, and honor their dedication to the Irish and Tucson community.

Portion of Festival Proceeds to benefit the Tucson Police Officers Association.

In memory of the more than one million Irish who died in the Potato Famine 150 years ago, marchers and spectators are asked to remember the hungry of Tucson. The Community Food Bank will accept canned food donations during the Festival.

Grand Marshal was supposed to be Mike Haggerty, one of their parade founders, and former Ward 3 Councilmember. Unfortunately Mike passed away at age 81 on 3/5/12 but he will be there in spirit and memory. The Haggerty family will be riding their decorated golf cart in the parade.

I usually go to this very “green” parade & festival, which is lots of fun, even for those of us who aren’t Irish (but would like to be). Note new location of festival at El Presidio Park on Alameda next to City Hall, west of Church Ave. and not at Armory Park.

www.tucsonstpatricksday.com

Also happening that morning for joggers:

The Third Annual “Running with the Irish” will feature the “Green Isle Mile.” It will begin at the corner of Pennington and Stone at 10:55 a.m.

This is THE competition for bragging rights to the fastest mile in Tucson!

The 1 mile run through beautiful downtown Tucson serves as the kick-off to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Register on www.taggrun.com and don’t forget to wear your green!

Another free & family-friendly 2nd Saturday Downtown (plus the St. Patrick’s Day parade & festival)

The March 12th 2nd Saturday Downtown event coincides with the St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival (click here for my previous blog). The one hour parade will begin at 5:30PM on 14th & Stone Avenue, wind through Downtown – E. Congress, Broadway and 6th Avenue – ending at Armory Park, where the festival will be. (The St. Patrick’s Day festival starts there at 3 p.m., prior to the parade, and will go on throughout the evening.)

This is the eleventh 2nd Sat. DT urban fest since the inaugural event on May 8, 2010. Website: www.2ndsaturdaysdowntown.com. It’s been almost one year of these fun- filled urban street fests, and I’ve been to almost every one. It’s wonderful to see Downtown come alive again!

For the usual event schedule, click here for the music entertainment at The Rialto Theatre, the Fox Tucson Theatre, the Scott Avenue stage, and the numerous other locales on and around E. Congress Street. Most of the events are FREE. There are lots of booths too selling delicious food (from all nations), and crafts as well. And lots of clowns, street musicians, people on stilts, human statues, etc. etc.

Food note: delicious, creative crepes will be made & sold in the Planet of the Crepes wagon on Saturday night (photo below courtesy of Jessica Kraus, owner).
She serves freshly made fruit crepes but also ones with chicken, vegetables, and other unique combinations.

Planet of the Crepes wagon

Had a mango/strawberry w/ coconut flakes crepe this past Sunday at the new European Farmers’ Market on the NE corner of Campbell/Speedway, and it was “some ono” – Hawaiian Pidgin English for yummy. (Her cute crepe wagon reminded me of the ubiquitous lunch wagons back home in Hawaii).

Photo below taken by Jeff Smith of the Zsa Zsas (McZsa Zsas?) group slated to perform at The Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress, for free (along with a real leprechaun):

Enjoy another 2nd Saturday Downtown! And don’t forget to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day again (for real) on March 17.

Dr. Peter Rhee to be Grand Marshall in St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 12

Dr. Peter Rhee (Arizona Republic file photo)

The 2011 parade and Festival theme, “Everyday Heroes,” will center on local, national and world personalities that have made a positive difference in the lives of those they touch.

The parade will feature marchers including floats, military units, local dignitaries, media and entertainment personalities and civic, cultural and social groups. The Tucson parade has a 24-year history and provides a good time for the entire family.

This year’s Grand Marshal is Dr. Peter Rhee, UMC trauma surgeon.

We will also have representatives from TPD, TFD, several local hospitals, EMT’s, first responders, social workers, care workers, as well as scores of Tucson teachers represented. Come out and help the Irish community show support and recognize our wonderful hard working men and women of Tucson!

The Honorary Grand Marshal for this year’s parade is Father Eusebio Francisco Kino. This year marks the 300th anniversary of his passing. Father Kino was well known for his ability to create relationships between indigenous peoples and the religious institutions he represented. He fought hard for the rights of the various Sonoran tribes and their individual members. He opposed the slavery and compulsory hard labor in the silver mines. Kino also practiced other crafts and was an expert astronomer, mathematician and cartographer, who drew the first accurate maps of Pemeria Alta, the Gulf of California and Baja California. Truly an Everday Hero!

More info on Father Kino at www.padrekino.com. (Kino Heritage Society)

The Festival begins in Armory Park (220 South 5th Avenue) at 3:00 p.m. with live Irish music, dancers, entertainment, a children’s game area, and food and merchandise vendors. Irish organization, ethnic and cultural tables will be set up in the park as well. Festival Schedule TBA.

Portion of Festival Proceeds to benefit the Tucson Police Officers Association, Kids & Cops Christmas Program.

In memory of the more than one million Irish who died in the Potato Famine 150 years ago, marchers and spectators are asked to remember the hungry of Tucson. The Community Food Bank will accept canned food donations at the parade line-up
area, along the parade route and at Armory Park during the Festival.

The one hour Parade will begin at 5:30PM on 14th & Stone Avenue, wind through Downtown – Congress, Broadway and 6th Street- ending at Armory Park.

This years Parade and Festival coincides with Downtown Tucson’s 2nd Saturday Event. More info can be found at www.tucsonstpatricksday.com or www.2ndsaturdaysdowntown.com.

The Korean American community in Tucson is very proud of Dr. Rhee, who treated Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the other shooting victims who were brought to University Medical Center on January 8. Click here for his bio on the UMC website. He is a Professor at the University of Arizona Medical School, and did his residency at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center (General Surgery).

Wear green for this parade & festival, and again on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day (even for menehune)

leprechaun in his pot of gold

You all know what an Irish leprechaun is, but do you know about the menehune of Hawaii? St. Patrick’s Day centers around the luck of the Irish and that infamous pot of gold being searched for at the end of a rainbow, by those tiny, mischievous folk, the leprechauns.

Well, back home in Hawaii, we kids grew up looking for menehune, the tiny native folk who also do mysterious things, like build fish ponds and other stone structures in the middle of the night.

There are also a lot of lava caves around for them to live in. I remember as a child on long car trips, looking eagerly for a glimpse of one of those little menehune coming out of the numerous lava tubes/caves along the side of the road of the Big Island. We had lots of rainbows on Hawaii Island, but no gold deposits anywhere (being as it’s volcanic).

One of my high school friends told me that once as a young boy on a cub scout hike, his troop came across very small footprints in the mud of our hilly, rural area of the Big Island. He says they excitedly followed the footprints for a while, which were spaced only a few inches apart. They looked like tiny baby foot impressions in the mud, along a dirt road next to a sugar cane field. Then the Cub Scout Master became scared (probably as he realized these may have been spirits), and they left the area immediately. Who knows? He told me he thought they were menehune footprints.

By the way, one of my friends in town is Hawaiian singer Ernie Menehune (originally from Kauai), who still sings at luaus and sometimes at the Kon Tiki, 4625 E. Broadway.

Anyway, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today by wearing green (I am) and hoping to find that Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. I know I’m still looking for it.

May the luck of the Irish be with you today.

Erin go braugh!

Wear green to St. Patrick’s Day events on March 13 & 14

May the luck of the Irish be with you!

“Irish import, musician, and singer Jamie O’Brien will be bringing you some beautiful, haunting Irish and Celtic songs, both old and new, influenced by his very own individual approach to the traditional, complete with a wee touch of the contemporary.” Saturday, March 13, 2010, between 3:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M, at Himmel Park branch library, 1035 N. Treat Ave., in the large meeting room.

Then the next day Sunday, March 14 “run with the Irish” downtown for the annual St. Patrick’s Day festival and parade. The fest is all day at Armory Park (220 S. 5th Avenue), 10 to 5 p.m. with the parade starting at 11 a.m.

Here are two good Tucson Irish American/St. Patrick’s Day websites:

http://www.tucsonstpatricksday.com/ for parade & festival info, along their theme of “Running with the Irish.”

http://tucsonirishcommunity.com/Events/st-patricks-day-parade-and-festival (lots of information about the happenings of the Irish Community in Tucson).

For updates contact John Flanagan at info@FlanagansCelticCorner.com, by phone at 520- 623-9922, or meet him in person at the only Celtic/Irish/Scottish/Welsh shop in town–
FLANAGAN’s Celtic Corner, 222 E Congress St, in downtown Tucson, across from the Ronstadt Transit Center. Hours are Wed – Fri: 11AM – 3 PM, Sat – Sun: 9 AM – 6 PM.

My husband and I honeymooned in Ireland, and I am good friends with several Irish Americans who always celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. And believe it or not, I bake Irish soda bread (recipe courtesy of my friend, the late Alice Creagh Brown, of Ridgefield, Connecticut).

Happy St. Patrick’s Day a wee bit early. And don’t forget to wear green (or you’ll get pinched)!