Roads will be closed in preparation for Hilton Head St. Patrick’s Day Parade. What to know
After a two-year hiatus during the pandemic, Hilton Head’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is back starting at 3 p.m. Sunday. And so is the traffic.
The festivities will begin at Lowcountry Celebration Park near the parking lot at Coligny Beach. From there, the parade will turn left onto Pope Avenue and make another left on Office Park Road. The parade ends at the Courtyard Building near Park Plaza.
The parade began in 1983 when a local businessman, Tom Reilly, and his family started it to honor local vendors and charities, according to the event’s website. In the past, more than 25,000 people have come to watch what is now South Carolina’s oldest parade. This year, the 37th annual parade will be led by grand marshals and local real estate agents Allan and Gloria LaCoe. The two were originally chosen for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2020 that was canceled because of the pandemic.
If you are participating in the parade, you must report by 1 p.m. to the staging area at the Coligny Beach parking lot, which can be accessed from South Forest Beach Drive’s westbound lane. If you are dropping off a participant in the parade, head to the Lowcountry Celebration Park entrance. Parking will not be available near the staging area and only cars registered for the parade will be able to go in.
Parade attendees can catch a ride to the festivities on the Breeze Trolley service, which will be running one-way trips from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. from the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Hilton Head campus.
A boat parade scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. was canceled because of high winds, event organizers announced via the website. Winds are expected to come in Sunday between 6 and 9 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Charleston. The day is expected to be sunny with a high of 50 degrees. Winds are expected to calm down at night and the temperature is projected to drop to 42 degrees.
Detours
All of Pope Avenue’s eastbound lanes will be closed to traffic until at least 6 p.m. in preparation for the parade. Deputies from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office will be there beginning at 2 p.m. to place cones and barricades, the Sheriff’s Office said in an alert. All traffic will be redirected through Pope Avenue’s westbound lanes. Drivers will be able to get to Coligny Circle from New Orleans Road. Both Sea Pines Circle lanes heading onto Pope Avenue will be shut down as well as the entrance to Shipyard Plantation on Pope Avenue.
No cars will be able to get through on Cordillo Parkway. Drivers on Lagoon Road trying to get to Pope Avenue will only be allowed to make a right-hand turn. Drivers heading down College Center Drive and Office Way will be redirected to Office Park Road and permitted to exit onto Greenwood Drive. Pope Avenue access will be cut off for the parade.
This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 9:44 AM.
