Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade start time changes for 2025 with "zero tolerance" for bad behavior
Heading to the 2025 Boston's St. Patrick's Day Parade? This year, there's a new start time for the popular Southie celebration as authorities look to limit "out-of-control behavior" from paradegoers.
Four local lawmakers - Congressman Stephen Lynch, state Sen. Nick Collins, state Rep. David Biele and Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn - wrote in a letter to college administrators and school superintendents that "there will be zero tolerance for the out-of-control behavior that the people of South Boston endured last year."
Flynn says his office was flooded with hundreds of calls after last year's parade.
"It was pretty bad last year, and we all have seen the videos of the violence that took place up at Medal of Honor Park and other places and the level of public drinking was excessive," Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn said. "This parade is about respecting our veterans, respecting our military families. If you can't come to South Boston and behave don't come."
The parade is being held on Sunday, March 16, one day before St. Patrick's Day.
What time is Boston's St. Patrick's Day Parade?
A task force made up of event organizers, law enforcement and city officials decided to move the parade to an 11:30 a.m. start. That's an hour and a half earlier than when the parade started in 2024.
Collins told The Dorchester Reporter that the earlier start time is "an attempt to get a better handle on the tomfoolery."
The task force also "developed strategies to address public drinking and underage alcohol smuggling via the MBTA," the letter says.
"I think the earlier start is definitely going to help but there is not much you can do if people want to misbehave," said Boston resident Harrison Loud. "I guarantee the police will be around and everything so I am sure they will keep it in check."
"I don't think it's going to do much," said South Boston resident Justin McCarthy. "People are just going to get here earlier and drink earlier."
Officials want to keep the event family-friendly.
"Our focus has remained on addressing the public safety and quality of life issues that created the unacceptable 'anything goes' atmosphere last year," the letter states, citing reports of "public drinking, disturbing incidents of violence and assaults that went viral on social media, people on rooftops without a roof deck, overcrowding on roof decks, beer cans thrown at parade marchers, and public urination on resident's property."
Move the St. Patrick's Day Parade out of South Boston?
After last year's parade, Flynn said the party should be moved out of South Boston if "major changes" were not made to the event.
Southie residents reported "trash everywhere" along the parade route. Boston police made 10 arrests at the parade for charges that included disorderly conduct and assault and battery. A drunk man with a gun was arrested near the Andrew MBTA station, police said.
There was mixed reaction in the neighborhood to the thought of the parade going somewhere else. Longtime resident Dianna Fischer told WBZ-TV at the time that the celebrations have gone overboard in recent years.
"I like people to have a good time and everything but it's a little much," she said.
"It's a town that's been made on this type of stuff and it's been a tradition for so long," said South Boston resident Sam Roberts. "It shouldn't leave, it should stay in Southie."
