MISSION VIEJO : St. Patrick’s Day Event Revived for Next Year

After a one-year absence, Orange County’s only St. Patrick’s Day parade will return, although in new, smaller format.

The Irish Parade and Fair is set for March 16 at Mission Viejo High School, with local groups promenading around the athletic field track.

“We wanted to please the community and still have the parade,” said Susan DeCant, a member of the Mission Viejo Activities Committee and organizer for the event. “What people seemed to like the most was having some of the local groups and local bands. All of the old favorites will be back.”

The only St. Patrick’s Day parade in the county for 24 years, the event was dropped last year because it had grown too large and expensive for the activities committee to handle.

More than 10,000 people attended the annual parade, which had about 2,000 participants in 1994.

“It was getting more overwhelming every year,” DeCant said. “We had to block city streets and deal with traffic.”

To generate interest in a more modest St. Patrick’s Day celebration, organizers decided to have an Irish Fair that will hold firmly to its theme. Instead of the chili cook-off held in the past, chefs will compete to see who makes the best Irish stew.

There will be Irish bands, games and food booths.

Longtime Mission Viejo residents say the smaller scale of the Irish Parade and Fair harks back to a time when a few hundred people proudly walked down the streets to celebrate their Irish heritage.

“It started out cozy and small-townish, then it got big-time,” said Norman P. Murray, former mayor of Mission Viejo and currently a planning commissioner. “I can recall when it was held on Chrisanta Drive that we could sit in our frontyard and watch the parade go by. I guess everything has to change with the times.”

For more information, call the Mission Viejo Activities Committee at (714) 830-7066.