By Akhira Umar
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
With the day quickly approaching, the Midway Business Association finalized plans Wednesday for the March 16 St. Patrick’s Day in Midway. It also decided to do another sawhorse-decorating contest, but postponed until next year a summer watersports event for dogs.
The St. Patrick’s event will last from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and feature many festivities. The main attraction will be a parade, set for 4 p.m. Promotional materials say it will have “the world’s tallest leprechaun,” county officials, several floats, musicians and dancers, local organizations and more. Steve Morgan, vice president of the business association, said the parade would include a left-handed jeep with a dummy appearing to drive.
Downtown businesses will also be participating in the festivities. Shops will open at 10 a.m. while restaurants open at 11 a.m. Some restaurants, such as Mezzo and the Brown Barrel & Blind Harry’s, will offer green beer.
Morgan said all the restaurants are planning to have door prizes. Unlike last St. Patrick’s Day, winners will not be pulled from punch cards, as was done at the Chocolate Stroll; the card system did not have many participants. Justin Werner, manager of the Goose and Gander restaurant, reported having only two entries for the door prize last year. Other association members reported similar results.
“They’ll have their own way of who wins the door prize,” Morgan said about how business will handle prizes this year. “I don’t know if it’ll be the fiftieth person through the door or what they’re gonna do.”
West Sixth Brewing fans will be pleased to hear that the brewery will have a truck at the event, and that the city has designated it as a civic event, allowing customers to walk the street with West Sixth beer for the day.
Morgan said he expects the turnout to be similar to last year’s. Crowds mainly grew near the time of the parade instead of lasting throughout the day.
“I think last year we were pretty worried early in the day because there wasn’t much going on, but then it turned out we had a pretty good crowd,” Morgan said.
The long-range weather forecast for March 16 is cloudy with a high of 46 degrees. Rain is forecast on the preceding three days.
After some deliberation, the association decided to repeat the Midway Saw Horse Derby, a friendly month-long decorating competition between businesses, though it has not been advertised yet.
Megan McClure of Southern Sunday and Heather Marchiafava of Commotion Consignment Riding Apparel voiced their concern, saying that they were not given proper guidance last year and felt left out. Cortney Neikirk, president of the business association, said it will ensure that businesses get better help with their display horses this year. She said last year’s competition was simply “horribly put together.” She became president in January.
The association decided to postpone until next year Dock Dogs, an event that had been proposed for the summer, probably June 22 and 23. To secure an event date with the Dock Dogs company, the association would have to pay $3,000 up front and another $3,000 two weeks before the event. Members at the meeting agreed that the dates were too close to collect necessary sponsorships and sufficiently advertise.
“Ideally you’d like to have the sponsors to pay the majority, if not all of the $6,000,” said Katie Hicks of Midway Chiropractic. “That way you know what to set the booth fees at because you don’t wanna charge somebody $200 to have a booth just to be able to cover your costs.”
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
With the day quickly approaching, the Midway Business Association finalized plans Wednesday for the March 16 St. Patrick’s Day in Midway. It also decided to do another sawhorse-decorating contest, but postponed until next year a summer watersports event for dogs.
The St. Patrick’s event will last from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and feature many festivities. The main attraction will be a parade, set for 4 p.m. Promotional materials say it will have “the world’s tallest leprechaun,” county officials, several floats, musicians and dancers, local organizations and more. Steve Morgan, vice president of the business association, said the parade would include a left-handed jeep with a dummy appearing to drive.
Downtown businesses will also be participating in the festivities. Shops will open at 10 a.m. while restaurants open at 11 a.m. Some restaurants, such as Mezzo and the Brown Barrel & Blind Harry’s, will offer green beer.
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| Melissa and Blake Jones are the parade's Irish Court of Honor. Lillie Cox is grand marshal. (Photo from event Facebook page) |
“They’ll have their own way of who wins the door prize,” Morgan said about how business will handle prizes this year. “I don’t know if it’ll be the fiftieth person through the door or what they’re gonna do.”
West Sixth Brewing fans will be pleased to hear that the brewery will have a truck at the event, and that the city has designated it as a civic event, allowing customers to walk the street with West Sixth beer for the day.
Morgan said he expects the turnout to be similar to last year’s. Crowds mainly grew near the time of the parade instead of lasting throughout the day.
“I think last year we were pretty worried early in the day because there wasn’t much going on, but then it turned out we had a pretty good crowd,” Morgan said.
The long-range weather forecast for March 16 is cloudy with a high of 46 degrees. Rain is forecast on the preceding three days.
After some deliberation, the association decided to repeat the Midway Saw Horse Derby, a friendly month-long decorating competition between businesses, though it has not been advertised yet.
Megan McClure of Southern Sunday and Heather Marchiafava of Commotion Consignment Riding Apparel voiced their concern, saying that they were not given proper guidance last year and felt left out. Cortney Neikirk, president of the business association, said it will ensure that businesses get better help with their display horses this year. She said last year’s competition was simply “horribly put together.” She became president in January.
The association decided to postpone until next year Dock Dogs, an event that had been proposed for the summer, probably June 22 and 23. To secure an event date with the Dock Dogs company, the association would have to pay $3,000 up front and another $3,000 two weeks before the event. Members at the meeting agreed that the dates were too close to collect necessary sponsorships and sufficiently advertise.
“Ideally you’d like to have the sponsors to pay the majority, if not all of the $6,000,” said Katie Hicks of Midway Chiropractic. “That way you know what to set the booth fees at because you don’t wanna charge somebody $200 to have a booth just to be able to cover your costs.”
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