After hundreds of hours of work by hundreds of people, the 52nd edition of St. Patrick's Day Parade will step off Saturday shortly before noon.
Thousands are expected to swarm the downtown for a Scranton tradition often heralded as one of the biggest St. Patrick's Day parades in the country.
The day will begin with a Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Peter's Cathedral, 315 Wyoming Ave., followed by the two-mile Brian Kelly Memorial Race at 11.
The parade starts at 11:45 a.m. on Wyoming Avenue in front of the cathedral and follows the familiar path to Lackawanna Avenue, over to Jefferson Avenue, down Spruce Street and along North Washington Avenue, where it passes the William J. Nealon Federal Building and reaches the reviewing stand.
"It's been a lot of work in a lot of different directions," Dave Clark, executive director of the St. Patrick's Parade Association of Lackawanna County, said with a laugh.
Acting Scranton Police Chief Carl Graziano said the center of downtown will be closed beginning at 10:30 a.m. Roads will reopen between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
"It's our biggest event of the year that we have to provide coverage for," Chief Graziano said. "It really taxes our resources for the day."
Saturday's parade will feature representatives from hundreds of groups divided into 10 divisions. All told, it will boast 12,000 participants, including bagpipe, high school and bands.
"There's estimates of 100,000 people in downtown that day," Mr. Clark said.
In addition to downtown festivities, the Gentleman's League of Extraordinary Mustaches will host its sixth annual "Stache Bash" during Parade Day, raising money for a local cancer nonprofit. The family friendly event at the Clarion Hotel on Meadow Avenue from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
In addition to prizes given out in several categories for mustaches, such as Lifetime Achievement and Rookie of the Year, there will be games and activities for kids. Women are invited to get in on the fun and compete for awards with their interpretations of mustaches. The benefit is open to the public and has outgrown several other venues because of the sizable crowds it attracts annually.
"It started in a friend's backyard, 10 of us just goofing around, then moved to Jilly's bar on Court Street and ended in the ballroom at the Clarion," said co-organizer C.J. Mullarkey. "We were kinda shocked last year when we raised over $2,500."
Admission is $30 per person for all-you-can-eat breakfast and open bar, or $15 for breakfast only. Children ages 12 and under are admitted for free. "It's not just one big party," Mr. Mullarkey said. "It started as something funny, and after that we just (wanted to) raise money."
PATRICE WILDING, staff writer, contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, @jkohutTT on Twitter