In Kansas City, a Festive Yet Cautious St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Irish dancers, Gaelic football players, green everything: Thousands of spectators gathered for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday, the first citywide parade since a deadly shooting last month roiled the city’s Super Bowl celebration.

The St. Patrick’s Day parade, the city’s 50th this year, is regarded as one of the country’s largest, with crowds known to reach hundreds of thousands. On Sunday, a sizable — but notably smaller — crowd sporting green beanies, vests, cowboy hats and sweatshirts came together, even under high winds and chilly temperatures.

The parade showcased Gaelic Athletic Club members demonstrating their hurling skills, bagpipe players, antique fire trucks and lots of green items, including cotton candy, plaid hats and stuffed animals. There was a stand with T-shirts that read “Kansas City has our own St. Patrick,” with a photo of the Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes — which at one point were almost blown away by the fierce winds.

But the festivities were not without the somber reminder of a shooting at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade on Feb. 14 that left one dead and 22 injured, rattling the community. Two men, Lyndell Mays, 23, and Dominic Miller, 18, were charged with murder in connection to the shooting, and two teenagers were charged with resisting arrest and “gun-related” offenses.

Still, many on Sunday were determined to not let last month’s tragedy disrupt a treasured tradition.