Return of St. Patrick's Day Parade brings hope for 2022 Chicago Pride Parade

Chicago's South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade will return March 13 after being canceled the past two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, signaling hope for the return of Chicago's Pride Parade in June.

Organizers of the annual Pride parade, PRIDEChicago, confirmed to GoPride.com that an application for permit was made in November 2021. The application lists the event date as June 26, 2022, which is the traditional date for the parade in Chicago – the last Sunday in June.

“I think the chances are very good that it will happen this year,” said Tim Frye, parade coordinator. “We're going on that assumption.”

The parade was cut short in 2019 due to inclement weather and canceled in 2020 and 2021 over coronavirus concerns. The 2020 cancellation marked a first in the parade's 50-year history.

If the parade steps off in 2022, it will be the first solely organized by Frye, whose late husband, Richard Pfeiffer, died in October 2019. Pfeiffer coordinated the parade since 1974.

The parade, which started as a protest march in 1970, has grown into the city's second-largest parade of nearly 200 entries, typically attracting more than 1 million people to multiple northside neighborhoods, particularly Lakeview.

Additional events for Pride Month are returning to the June calendar as well. 

A source with Northalsted Business Alliance, organizers of Chicago's annual Pride Fest, confirmed plans for the 2022 street festival to return to the traditional weekend preceding the Pride parade.

Chicago Pride Fest was canceled in 2020 and delayed until October 1-3 in 2021.

Pride in the Park, which returned last June to Chicago's Grant Park, is slated for June 25 and 26, 2022. Tickets for the outdoor music festival are expected to go on sale soon.

COVID metrics show Illinois exiting the omicron surge

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced last week that the state's indoor mask mandate would be lifted by Feb. 28. Many suburbs have followed the governor's timeline.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has refused to name a date for lifting the city's mask and vaccine requirements, despite making "tremendous progress" amid the omicron surge.

Illinoisans are being infected, hospitalized and dying from COVID-19 at significant lower levels not seen since last autumn.

Eight deaths were reported by the Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday, the state's lowest daily death toll since late November. Cases, too, were at their lowest point in nearly three months, with 2,734 reported.

Chicago's South Side St Patrick's Day Parade will return for 2022

Chicago's South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade will travel  a one-mile route through Chicago's Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods on March 13. The parade is expected to start at noon, beginning at 103rd Street and Western Avenue, then moving along Western Avenue to 115th Street. 

Alderman Matt O'Shea of the 19th Ward said he sees no reason not to have the parade this year.

"For the residents of my community, the business owners of my community, this is sorely needed," Alderman O'Shea told WLS-TV.