Thousands celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

Toronto hosts one of North America's largest parades

Downtown Toronto was awash in green Sunday for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade. 

Excited crowds filled Toronto’s downtown core Sunday in celebration of the 26th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Thousands of people lined up to watch the floats and performances from Irish dancers, Toronto Police and Firefighters and even a line of DeLorean DMC-12 sports cars.

Even though it’s a day to celebrate all things Irish, many countries were represented including the Philippines, Scotland and China.

There were many appearances of green hats, scarves and earmuffs as the temperatures were below zero for the day. In spite of that, both spectators and participants of the parade appeared to enjoy the sunny afternoon in high spirits.

In the morning, parade participants gathered at 8 a.m. for staging at St. George and Bloor Streets. As soon as noon hit, they headed west, then down Yonge Street and ended at Nathan Phillip’s Square.

This caused some traffic issues as these roads were closed from noon until about 3 p.m. TTC subway service was also stopped from St. George to Union stations due to signal upgrades. Shuttle buses were used instead, resulting in more congestion.

Toronto Police were on hand to move traffic and ensure safety for all parade-goers. TTC staff directed people to the nearest bus stops.

About this article

By: Whitney Reyes
Posted: Mar 17 2013 7:43 pm
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Filed under: News