By Annie Driver
The Birmingham St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been postponed due to the coronavirus threat. The parade which expected approximately 80,000 attendees this year announced this shortly after London cancelled their celebrations.
A statement from the committee read: “The team behind the major celebration of Irish culture and heritage have now promised to deliver ‘a world-class festival experience that Birmingham and the UK expect and deserve later in the year.
“The future of the parade was secured thanks to a number of generous and much-needed commitments from new festival supporters Chasetown Civil Engineers and Court Collaboration, who were announced as joint partners earlier in the year.
“Chairman of the Committee Peter Connolly said: “We are devastated to share this news with you, however, we are committed to providing our city with a belated St Patrick’s celebration that we can all be proud of later in the year.
“We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation and look forward to coming back with announcements very soon.”
This news comes after Dublin, Cork and New York cancelled their festivities earlier in the week. The COBRA meeting yesterday confirmed the UK were in the ‘delay phase’ and while they did not stipulate any formal government guidelines regarding events, London and Birmingham have decided it is best to cancel their St. Patrick’s activities.
The parade was last cancelled in 1976 following the aftermath of the Birmingham Pub Bombings and was resurrected again in in the 90s.
Early this year it came under threat again after Kiely Bros withdrew as a headline sponsor but was confirmed to go ahead when Court Collaboration and Chasetown Engineers were announced as official sponsors.
