BATON ROUGE – The city’s iconic St. Patrick’s Day celebration will continue in 2021, although it won’t include thousands upon thousands of people lining the streets of Hundred Oaks and the Perkins Road Overpass area – that’ll come later.

In 2021, amid a city lockdown on event permits and concerns, though easing, of spreading COVID, the annual Wearin’ of the Green Parade will be seen as a telecast featuring memorable moments of the parade’s three-decade history and stories organizers have never revealed before about the parade’s history and how it became one of the biggest events in Baton Rouge.

WBRZ anchor Michael Shingleton produced the telecast which will be seen for the first time at 9:30 Saturday morning immediately following the WBRZ Saturday Morning News at nine.  Michael along with Pat Shingleton will showcase highlights of the parade’s route, interviews with organizers and share emotional memories of the first few years of the parade.

The special presentation of the Wearin’ of the Green will be seen on WBRZ Channel 2 and WBRZ Plus Saturday at 9:30 a.m. with encore presentations throughout the weekend on WBRZ Plus: At noon and 5 Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday and rebroadcast on St. Patrick’s Day, Wednesday, at 11 a.m.  WBRZ Plus is available on Cox channel 11, Eatel channel 2, with an antenna on channel 2.2, streaming here on WBRZ.com and on streaming devices – check specific streaming device app stores for WBRZ.

The St. Patrick’s Day parade would have rolled on Saturday but was postponed in 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic.  City officials have been wary of granting permits for large events that draw crowds.

In an interview seen on WBRZ News 2 at 10:00 Thursday, health officials explained when events may return to pre-pandemic appearances.

"The summer months, especially towards the end of the summer, we could absolutely be at a place where we have reached enough vaccine and vaccination of our population that we see summertime concerts and summertime large gatherings," Dr. Catherine O'Neal, Chief Medical Officer of Our Lady of the Lake, said.  Click HERE to see the story on demand from WBRZ.com.

Click HERE to watch the parade special presentation as its broadcast, streaming on WBRZ Plus.

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