St. Paddy's parade canceled in Chaoyang

St. Paddy's parade canceled in Chaoyang

• Source: Global Times
• [08:36 March 18 2011]
• Comments

Participants march in the St. Patrick's Day parade at Wangfujing Dajie on March 16, 2008. Photo: CFP

By Li Shuang and Samily Kwok

This year's St. Patrick's Day open-air concert and parade, originally scheduled for March 20 in Chaoyang Park, was canceled early this week by authorities.

Emma Leonard, First Secretary to the Ambassador at the Irish Embassy in Beijing and a core member of the parade's organizing committee, told the Global Times Thursday that Chaoyang district authorities told the committee to cancel the parade earlier this week.

The parade was one of the festivities planned for this year's two-week long holiday celebration.

The remaining events, including the Celtic Concert at the Forbidden City Concert Hall and the Beijing Irish Ball, will continue as scheduled.

Asked why the parade had to be canceled, Zi Xiangdong, spokesman of the Beijing Bureau of Public Security said, "no approval will be issued for any kind of parade right now, because these are sensitive times."

Zi later added that it is illegal to host large-scale gatherings without obtaining a permit from public security authorities in advance.

Karl Long, owner of Irish pub Paddy O'Shea's, shared with the Global Times what he thought St. Patrick's Day would be like without the parade. "Adults will hopefully move the celebration to the bars, and the kids are going to miss out on lots of fun," he said.

The St. Patrick's Day parade in Shanghai, scheduled for March 19 on Nanjing Donglu, was canceled early last week.

Shanghai parade organizers were refused permission to stage the event elsewhere, according to a report by the Irish Times.

Beijing's first St. Patrick's Day parade took place on Wangfujing Dajie in 2008. It has since moved to Chaoyang Park, where last year's parade attracted a few hundred festivalgoers.