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South Boston's 108th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade happens this Sunday at 1pm. Event details and a map of the parade route are here, and Bostonist has put together this list of Do's and Don't's to help you enjoy the parade, get your drink on, and not make an ass of yourself.
DO:
Arrive early. If you drive, plan to have breakfast in Southie, because all parking spaces will be gone by 10am. The parade closes Broadway, the neighborhood's main drag, which means MBTA buses run on their regular Sunday schedule before noon, but then get diverted to god knows where and don't get on-route again until early evening. Your best bet is to take the Red Line into Broadway Station and walk from there.
Chat with your neighbors. Despite their somewhat surly reputation, Southie residents love to tell a good story. And on St. Patrick’s, their stories tend to have even more flourishes than usual.
Keep it clean(ish). St. Patrick's Day is a loud and proud holiday, and boisterous parade-watching behavior is certainly encouraged. But even though the parade attracts over 800,000 people, it’s still very much a neighborhood event—you’ll see grandparents, kids, babies, and bulldogs enjoying the spectacle. Don't do or say anything that’d make your mother smack you upside the head and you should be fine.
(Don't's after the jump. Image of Boston's official St. Patrick's Day bar band from Amazon.com)
DON'T:
Plan a pub crawl. If you want to celebrate in one of the neighborhood’s well-stocked bars, claim your spot and be prepared to defend it—it’s gonna get packed. Almost everywhere will have a line out the door by noon. Yeah, you might miss some (or all) of the parade, but the advantages are access to legal alcohol and a bathroom.
Make fun of the accent. Laugh at dropped Rs and elongated vowels and you will be, as Bostonist's father says, cruisin’ for a bruisin’.
Flout public drinking laws. Red Solo cups, water bottles, and clear soda bottles filled with beer will not fool the police. And open beer cans in their line of sight will make them pretty unhappy with you, because they will have to stop enjoying the parade in order to bust you. Don't make the cops unhappy. It's not what St. Patrick would have wanted.
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Mul's diner.. right next to the Boradway Station.. it rules, it's cheap, go there.
Mul's diner.. right next to the Boradway Station.. it rules, it's cheap, go there.
Andrew puts you equally proximate to the parade route with far, far less crowd exiting trains and the station. But yeah, everyone get off at Broadway.