Despite wintry weather, annual St. Patrick’s Celebration still a draw in downtown Yorkville

For Yorkville parents Justina and Miles Burdsall, there’s nothing they wouldn’t do for their son Colton, 2, including celebrating St. Patrick’s on Saturday in their hometown with the temperature in the teens.

“We didn’t celebrate yet. We’re here for him. It’s all for him,” Justina Burdsall said Saturday as she and her husband made their way along Hydraulic Drive in Yorkville just before 11 a.m.

“We had the corned beef and cabbage thing last night and now we’re here for this,” Miles Burdsall said. “When it comes to St. Patrick’s Day, there’s no such thing as too much, not when it comes to Yorkville.”

Throughout the day, residents and visitors to Yorkville enjoyed a full slate of activities as Yorkville Parks and Recreation and downtown businesses hosted the city’s seventh annual St. Patrick’s Celebration.

The full-day program kicked off at 9 a.m. with a Lucky Leprechaun Hunt followed by the traditional Irish parade that began at 11 a.m. at Riverfront Park.

Music followed downtown at the Law Office Pub and Music Hall where the Gleeson Irish Trio – who have appeared all seven years of the celebration – began performing at 1 p.m.

Food and drink specials were available at participating bars and restaurants throughout the day.

Finally, a fireworks show was offered at 6:30 p.m. at Route 47 and Countryside Parkway in Yorkville.

Yorkville resident Boyd Ingemunson, a local attorney who also owns the Law Office Pub and Music Hall and helps coordinate a number of Yorkville festivals, spoke before Saturday’s event and said the parade and the rest of the festivities represent business as usual.

“It’s kind of like most of the stuff we do in Yorkville, we kind of don’t fix what’s not broken,” he said. “Bars and restaurants will have live music, we have the parade, a shamrock hunt and great cooperation between the city and the businesses and just getting a lot of folks out downtown and hitting the streets.”

Yorkville held a modified St. Patrick’s celebration a week ago and, according to Ingemunson, organizers decided there was enough interest and activities offered to hold events on back-to-back weekends.

“With St. Patrick’s Day on Friday the thought was do you celebrate on the 11th or this week on the 18th and we decided to do two weekends,” he said. “Ultimately, if it gets people downtown to visit businesses two weeks in a row great. The city and businesses felt there was enough excitement about St. Patrick’s Day we could spread it out over two weekends.”

Yorkville resident Tim Gleason, who works as one of the city’s festival organizers, noted that the St. Patrick’s fun continues to expand.

“St. Patrick’s Day is now more than one day, it’s an entire season filled with celebration and we’re happy to have enough people around town excited about it that we can fill up two weekends this year,” he said. “We’ll probably go back to one next year but for now it’s twice the fun.”

Shay Remus, superintendent of recreation for Yorkville Parks and Recreation, was dressed in glowing green colors and welcoming guests to the Lucky Leprechaun Hunt near the parade area Saturday along Hydraulic Drive.

She admitted “it is extremely cold out here, but we hope the crowds will start trickling in.”

“We did have several families complete the Lucky Leprechaun Hunt earlier this morning and a lot of floats are coming in so that’s been nice to see,” Remus said Saturday morning. “Last year was extremely cold as well and we had a great crowd although today is slightly colder.”

Jason Demas of Yorkville was sporting a green sweatshirt and a green coffee tumbler and said despite the cold, Saturday’s turnout at the parade “shows the support the community has and how deep it runs in Yorkville.”

“This is a wonderful place to live and raise a family,” Demas said. “We’ve had back-to-back celebrations here and we like to say ‘We are Yorkville.’ It includes everybody.”

Gary Thompson of Yorkville stood next to a tree along the route and said this was his first time coming to the parade.

“I figured I’d better get out and try and enjoy it,” he said. “I’ve been living here for a few years and I just wanted to do it – something different and enjoy being with other people.”

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.