FIRST EVER EIGHTH ANNUAL WORLD’S SHORTEST ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE
6 p.m., Bridge Street, Hot Springs. Free.
The hoopla surrounding Hot Springs’ biggest annual PR stunt started earlier in the week. On Monday, there was a wreath ceremony to honor one of the few two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winners, John King, an Irish American buried in Hot Springs. And on Tuesday, baseball historian Bill Jenkinson measured what he believes is the length of a nearly century-old Babe Ruth home run that “altered the course of baseball history.”
But the party really starts on Thursday, when something called “Romancing the Stone” that involves “smooching the Arkansas Blarney Stone” kicks off at 4:30 p.m. Official parade ceremonies begin at 6 p.m. “The World’s Tallest Leprechaun” will be milling about and around 6:25 p.m., the 98-foot route will be measured. At 6:30 p.m., the parade begins, celebrity grand marshaled by “Sex in the City” star John Corbett, whose self-described “good country rockin’ bar band” The John Corbett Band will play a free concert post-concert. There’ll be food and green beer for sale, too.
Read a Q&A with Corbett here.