Fairies, marching bands and kilts: Inside Kansas City’s huge St. Patrick’s Day parade
Just days after snow dampened Kansas City’s weekend fun, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky for the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade on Monday, March 17, when a sea of green rolled through.
The 2-hour parade, ranked by Irish Road Trip Guide as the sixth biggest holiday parade in the United States, brought together tens of thousands of people in midtown Kansas City to celebrate Irish heritage, some of whom were here for the first time.
Tricia Claybourne, who currently lives in Urbandale, Iowa, and was born in Maryville, Missouri, is visiting with her husband, Anthony, and their 8-year-old son, Grayson, for spring break.
One of her close friends lives in Kansas City, and Urbandale is only a 2 1/2 hour drive away, so they decided there was nothing better to do than to visit some museums and see the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The ninth-biggest holiday parade on Irish Road Trip Guide’s list hails in the Quad Cities, a region in between Iowa and Illinois, but Claybourne said it doesn’t compare to what she’s experienced in Kansas City.
“Kansas City has a lot to offer, and we really love it,” Claybourne.
The parade was slated to start at 11 a.m., but unannounced delays saw the first float take the streets at 11:37 a.m. Visitors migrated along the route, flowing into into Westport shortly after 1:30 p.m.
Kansas City’s parade turned Broadway Boulevard into a runway for cars and civilians frolicking the mile-long route. The event featured more than 100 entries, including floats and marching bands, from community organizations, businesses, government officials, families and individuals.
The parade kicked off with a riderless horse alongside St. Andrews Pipes & Drums in honor of Brookside chef Shaun Brady, co-owner of the Brady & Fox Restaurant and Lounge, 751 E. 63rd St. and a prominent member of Kansas City’s Irish community, who was killed Aug. 28, 2024.
Local and statewide officials, like Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas were also near the front of the parade. Lucas was spotted jogging through the route in the early stages of the route going through Broadway Boulevard from Linwood Boulevard to West 43rd Street.
2025’s theme is “Irish Wit & Wisdom,” and the grand marshal was Dublin native and Waldo resident Ronan Collins, the comedy curator for the KC Irish Fest. Some of the biggest reactions from the crowd were drawn from the many marching bands performing on the route, like KC Marching Sizzlers and KIPP Legacy High School.
The parade also gave a few people an excuse to dress up in flashy costumes and Irish gear.
Hundreds of kilts were spotted among the parade floats and people watching in the crowd, and fans of the Kansas City Renaissance Festival were decked out in their themed attire.
Jane Schumacher and her 9-year-old daughter, Aiyana, took the opportunity to dress up as fairies, drawing plenty of compliments from guests looking for a spot to watch the parade.
Schumacher, who lives in Independence now, said it was a family tradition to skip school and visit the parade and while that’s not something she’s passed down to her daughter, they were able to watch the parade since the Independence School District shifted to a four-day school week.
Dressing up as a fairy is also one way they reconnect with their Irish roots, Schumacher said. Fairies play a huge role in Irish folklore, but they typically don’t look like Tinkerbell. Instead, they can resemble many forms, like leprechauns or banshees.
“It’s just really good to understand where you come from because that helps give you a sense of identity,” Schumacher said. “That’s a part of my makeup, and that’s something I can’t change, and it’s beautiful.”
Hundreds of cops lined the parade route a year after the mass shooting during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration raised public safety concerns.
But it didn’t deter anyone from having a good time and enjoying the weather with a cold beverage in hand. Bars in Westport, like Kelly’s and Tin Roof, were packed from start to finish.
