SHARON, Pa. (WKBN) – The City of Sharon is hosting its first-ever St. Patrick’s Day, Slainte Parade.

Organizers have been working for a few months to get ready for the event. There will be live music and vendors. The night will conclude with fireworks.

Organizers say there are more than 70 floats participating. They are excited to host another great event in downtown Sharon.

“People are just really excited. We have not done anything like this before and everybody basically wants to be involved. We’re just excited for everybody to come together. It’s going to be beautiful outside and hopefully, this can continue for a couple of years,’ said Courtney Cilli, Sharon downtown events coordinator.

The event is not just a party but it is for a good cause. During the event, the city is helping collect donations for Shenango Valley animal charities and organizations. Organizers say they couldn’t have gotten ready without the support from the community.

“We’ve been planning this for about four months now and honestly we’ve had help from everybody in the city. our city manager is wonderful, we’ve had help from the police and the fire department, even code, our street department. Everybody has jumped on board and just been so helpful,” Cilli said.

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in downtown. The parade will begin near Penn State Shenango and end at the Quaker Steak and Lube.Those with the restaurant say this is just a taste of what’s to come for Friday.

“This is always the best part in the area. we will open up at 6am. we have live music going all day on three stages. Different local bands, we have some irish bands, we are going to have bagpipes, irish stepdancers, the works. pretty much everything you can have going on to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day will be right here,” said Quaker Steak & Lube Marketing Director Phil Hall.

There will be a Blessing of the Pets and performances to follow starting around 6:45.
To cap off the evening, there will be fireworks lighting the sky at 7:30.