Silky Sullivan St. Patrick's Parade turns 50: What to know before you go

A monument of Memphis revelry and pageantry has reached a milestone: The Silky Sullivan St. Patrick's Parade this year marks its 50th anniversary.

That's a half-century of marching bands and merrymakers, of shillelaghs and shenanigans, of green beers and green faces, and of (insert your own alliterative coupling here).

Here are five things to know about this year's parade.

When is the St. Patrick's Day parade on Beale Street?

Despite its name, the Silky Sullivan St. Patrick's Day Parade on Beale Street does not take place on the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland, which is March 17, but on the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, which this year is March 11. (The last time March 17 was a Saturday was 2018.) The reason for this, of course, is to enable people of all ages to attend the parade without having to miss work or school, and to encourage adult partiers to remain on Beale as Saturday afternoon progresses into Saturday night.

The parade is presented by the Beale Street Merchants Association and sponsored by the Irish Eyes of Memphis. Joellyn Sullivan, widow of the event's namesake co-founder, is parade organizer.

Silky O'Sullivan's:Why a Beale Street pub has goats (and why they don't drink beer anymore)

Memphis in May:Beale Street Music Festival is missing buzzworthy headliners. Are they still to come?

What to expect at the parade

The "line up" of participants begins at 1 p.m. while the parade itself begins at 2 p.m. Spectators are invited to wear green as they cheer on the parade's participants, including dance teams, marching bands and representatives of such organizations as the Memphis Redbirds and the 901 FC professional soccer team.

Return of the Purple Wave

Of special note (or "notes," because the musicians will play a lot of them) is the presence of the Christian Brothers High School Band, which this year celebrates its 150th anniversary and bills itself as "The Oldest High School Band in America." The last time the band performed a citywide St. Patrick's Day parade was during the first such event in Memphis history, in the band's inaugural year of 1873.

The grand marshal and more

Pat Mitchell Worley, CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, which supports the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the Stax Music Academy and the Soulsville Charter School, and other affiliated enterprises, is grand marshal of this year's parade. Her résumé includes work on the staff of the Blues Foundation and as development director for the Memphis Music Foundation; she also served as co-host of the globally syndicated Memphis-based radio show Beale Street Caravan for two decades. Plus, she has a personal connection to the event: Her wedding to actor/filmmaker Billie Worley was held at the New Daisy on Beale during the parade.

"Her participation, along with that of such longtime marchers as Dr. David Acey (founder of the Africa in April Festival) and Paula Raiford, among others, underscores the fact that this St. Patrick's event is bigger than just Irish Americans and has really come to be embraced by the entire community," said parade publicist Mark Jordan.

Meanwhile, Ron Childers, chief meteorologist for WMC Action News 5, will serve as parade king, complete with a crown forged by smiths at the Metal Museum. Moira Flanagan, niece of the late Mark Flanagan, a parade co-founder, will be crowned "Queen of Western Appalachia." And Benny Carter, proprietor of the Midtown bar Murphy’s, will be named the "Irish American of the Year"

History of the Silky Sullivan St. Patrick's Parade

The St. Patrick's Day parade traces its long and winding and sometimes unsteady trajectory back to 1973, when friends and restaurant owners/investors Mark Flanagan, Thomas Boggs and Thomas "Silky" Sullivan (all now deceased) formed "The Irish Eyes of Memphis" and expanded their St. Patrick's Day party tradition into a multi-bar event that by the end of the decade had expanded into a Downtown-to-Midtown "pub crawl" that attracted thousands of revelers. By the 1980s, the event began to contract, to be less wild-and-woolly and more family-friendly. For the past 30 years it has been located on Beale Street and hosted by the merchant's association, which named the parade in Sullivan's honor.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis St. Patrick's Day Parade on Beale Street: What to know