The spectacle started three hours before the parade… runners in wild get ups beat a path down Greenville Avenue for a 5-k dash.
Kathleen Dowse and Richard Harmer ran it with their rescue dog Henry the pit bull mix who had a green tip of the tail. They weren’t going anywhere after the race.
“I love parades. I’m a child at heart,” said Dowse. “This was actually a highlight, getting dressed up.”
Speaking of getting dressed up. Did some people forget something? Marcela Gutierrez had no green on.
We talked to her after she had her best 5-K time ever.
“I was thinking I would focus on the race and set a PR [personal record] and would put a green shirt on afterwards,” said Gutierrez.
Ah afterwards. The big attraction. 90 floats, more than a thousand people on them tossing beads and blaring loud music. Tens of thousands treated to a near perfect weather day.
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“What I really enjoy most about it is all the people, it’s just a great celebration, the music, the drinking, all of it,” said Kim Gardner who brought her mother with her.
“It’s been real exciting,” said Moyia Taylor who’s at her first Dallas St. Patrick’s Day parade since moving here from Kansas City. “Down toward the end there’s people with green hair and wicked costumes. It’s been a real experience.”
Police we talked to around 3:00 pm said everyone had been relatively well-behaved.
But NBC 5 did see a fair number of people who apparently had too much to drink, including a woman who opened our live truck asking if we had a bathroom inside.
