PEORIA, Ill. — A day after Chicago and other major metropolitan areas announced they were cancelling their St. Patrick’s Day festivities, Peoria has announced it’s postponing its own.
The annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in downtown Peoria, which had been scheduled for Tuesday, will be pushed back.
Mayor Jim Ardis said he’s still advocating for it to take place in 2020.
“I’d like to see it maybe happen in conjunction with Erin Feis weekend,” he said.
“I think that’d be a great part of their festivities on the Riverfront.”
Organizers had put out a statement on Wednesday saying everything would go on, as planned.
That’s not the only event to be affected by coronavirus concerns.
This weekend’s Illinois High School Association basketball tournament at Peoria Civic Center will not be open to the public.
Instead, admission will be restricted to players’ immediate families.
“The discussions have been ongoing for the last week, and up to and including late [Wednesday] night,” said Ardis.
“I think the decision was made the announcement would come out first thing [Thursday] morning.”
The March Madness Experience event associated with the tournament has been canceled, completely.
Also, CityLink has cancelled its shuttle service between hotels and the Peoria Civic Center.
As far as other scheduled upcoming events go, Ardis warned to be prepared.
“I would say any of the many events attracting big crowds [could be canceled],” he said.
“Not necessarily as big as IHSA, but even 100 or more are probably all going through the same [discussion] process that’s been done for these, and just understanding the importance of minimizing any potential transmission or spreading of the coronavirus.
“We have folks who have been meeting with the Civic Center all week continuing at this moment to work out details of all those kinds of things.”
The Civic Center told WMBD News as of Thursday morning, all scheduled events were still taking place.
