Halfway to St. Pat’s party set Sept. 17

Visit Hot Springs will kick off its 2019 St. Patrick’s Day celebration six months early with a halfway party on Sept. 17.

The celebration will take place from 4-7 p.m. on the plaza lawn of the Hot Springs Convention Center at the corner of Convention Boulevard and Malvern Avenue with a Pop Up Pub Pop Up Party.

The party is getting a sixmonth head start on the First Ever 16th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which will take place March 17, 2019, on Bridge Street.

“We’ll get our attitudes adjusted so that we concentrate on making the 2019 St. Patrick’s

Day Parade even better than its predecessors,” Bill Solleder, marketing director for Visit Hot Springs, said in a news release.

“We will set up the world-famous world’s largest inflatable pop up Irish pub, O’Kelley’s, and feature music and entertainment and just plain fun. Adult beverages will be available.”

The event is free and open to the public, and will be the site of the Hot Springs Young Professionals’ monthly Pub Club, Solleder said.

Solleder said the identity of the celebrity grand marshal for the 2019 parade will be disclosed at 5:30 p.m., leaving plenty of time to celebrate the disclosure.

“The Professional Black Belt Academy will be giving a demonstration when we announce the grand marshal,” Solleder told The Sentinel-Record. “The grand marshal is tied to the martial arts, but of course, it’s not Bruce Lee.”

In 2018, the festivities began March 16 with a free concert by Grand Funk Railroad on the Bridge Street stage. Solleder said again this year there will be a concert on March 16 and a post-parade concert on March 17. Entertainment is yet to be announced.

“It’s never too early to start thinking green,” Solleder said.