Yesterday, I finally had the courage to go out and photograph. It was the St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Chicago and I wouldn’t miss it for the world – just because everything turns green in Chicago. This is such an Irish town, with an Irish mayor and lots of Irish pubs.
First in the morning, they turn the Chicago River green … just for the heck of it.
Then they have a parade …
In the past years, I would go to the greening of the river to photograph and then walk to the parade and photograph some more, until I got hungry and go home.
This year though, I did the celebrations a little bit differently. Instead of staying at the parade for long, I decided to walk around the Loop (the business section of Chicago) and photographed drunks. I mean, literally, the Loop area of Chicago were full of marauding groups of young people, most of whom were drunk.
Rave-like situation at the Bean
There used to have two St. Patrick’s Day Parades in Chicago – one, the traditional parade on Columbus Dr. in downtown Chicago, and the other, somewhere in the South Side, that has been described as unruly and more racuous. Last year, they decided to scrap the South Side parade because the crowd had become unmanageable.
So this year, South Side revelers descended upon the celebration downtown that a feature on the Chicagoist website described the downtown Parade as My First Beer Parade. Throngs of young people, most of whom were inebriated, were roaming the adjacent streets! I decided then to ditch the parade and roamed the streets as well, to photograph the throngs.
Can’t wait for next year!