{"id":137869,"date":"2026-03-14T00:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/137869\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T00:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:44:17","slug":"preparing-for-st-patricks-parade-day-in-scranton-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/137869\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for St. Patrick’s Parade day in Scranton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bars and restaurants are putting on their finishing touches to welcome the big crowds ahead of the St. Patrick’s Parade<\/a> in Scranton, no one more ready than Benny’s, as the restaurant is celebrating its grand opening just 24 hours before the parade steps off.<\/p>\n

“We actually signed the papers for this building last year on parade day, our offer was accepted. So, this has been a year in the making. Obviously, parade day is the biggest day of the year; this is our Christmas for Scranton,” said Alex Harris, Benny’s general manager.<\/p>\n

More than 100,000 paradegoers fill the streets and businesses, making it one of the busiest days of the year for local businesses.<\/p>\n

“We have some experience dealing with this, but we’re ready for it, and we’re excited for the community to come out,” said Brandon O’Malley, owner of Benny’s.<\/p>\n

It’s no easy feat to make one of the largest parades in the country happen. It takes a lot of work and a little luck.<\/p>\n

“It’s a group of guys that are fun. We enjoy each other’s company. It’s not hard, it’s just Sunday afternoons. It’s nice, the wives allow us to do this too because we do abandon them for a couple of hours,” said Jerry Gilpatrick, St Patrick’s Parade Association of Lackwanna County.<\/p>\n

But the taps are already flowing at Benny’s as they celebrate their fourth location. This one, known for its presence along the parade route.<\/p>\n

“Kildare’s and then the Railyard two big names when it came to parade day. So, it’s our turn to take it over. We definitely put in a lot of time and energy into remodeling the building. We did quite a lot of work. So we’re excited for everyone to see it on the biggest day of the year for us,” said Harris.<\/p>\n

As organizers say, it’s all about celebrating Irish pride and tradition and maybe raising a pint or two along the way.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be a good day. It always is,” added Gilpatrick.<\/p>\n

The Scranton St. Patrick’s Parade steps off Saturday at 11:45 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bars and restaurants are putting on their finishing touches to welcome the big crowds ahead of the St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[63439,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-137869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-alex-harris","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}