ST PAUL, Minn. — In the good old days before COVID-19, St. Paul used to be home to a couple of parades, including one that ran right along White Bear Avenue. However, as with many good things, COVID has posed challenges making it harder and harder for these parades to come back.
The last time White Bear Avenue saw a parade was back in August of 2021 when beloved St. Paul native and Olympic Gold Medalist Suni Lee returned home.
Since then, parades have been few and far between. With announcements like these breaking hearts for many:
Grand Old Day Will Return in 2023!
Grand Old Day will continue to be on pause this summer as we focus our time and energy on planning Grand Old Day 2023. Covid has brought many uncertainties for all of us and requires a new way of thinking about large scale, all age events such as Grand Old Day. While we did consider bringing the event back in 2022, we ultimately decided that our community will be better served with a well planned event in 2023. We have already started the process of gathering the community partners and resources needed to create a vibrant, exciting and fun Grand Old Day 2023.
We can’t wait to welcome you back to Grand Old Day. In the meantime, please continue to support our Grand Avenue businesses by enjoying the great food, drinks, shopping, events and all the great experiences our Grand Avenue Businesses offer year round.
The White Bear Avenue Business Association also said in a brief statement that they are discontinuing the White Bear Avenue Parade due to the increased cost of security. They added that a community event will take place instead of the parade that brought so many together.
And while the St. Paul St. Patrick's Day parade did make a much desired comeback, another west St. Paul tradition, officials announced that the Cinco De Mayo parade won't happen 2022:
Unfortunately, the challenges created by COVID have continued to force us to have to postpone the event for 2022. It takes many months to plan Cinco de Mayo and with the protocols in place as recent as the beginning of March, there simply wasn't enough time to create a large community celebration.
Many of the parade organizers, including the organizers of Grand Old Day say they're banking on 2023 to be the bigger and better year to come back. They said that will give them plenty of time to prepare.
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