Planning Underway for Kodiak’s Annual St. Paddy’s Day Parade

Erik Wanders/KMXT

The annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade will take place in downtown Kodiak Tuesday, and the parade’s long-time local organizer is hoping to find bagpipers and other musicians to participate.

KMXT’s Erik Wander has more.

Coyote Bowers, known locally simply as Coyote, estimates he has been organizing the parade for about 39 years, though he admits he hasn’t really kept count. He said flowers, signifying spring, have played a role in the parade since the beginning. Relatively expensive green carnations have now been replaced by pussy willows, which Coyote gathers himself and says better represent the season.

— (Coyote 1 38 sec. "We’d always go get … with all the ladies in Kodiak.")

Coyote said the parade’s route is still being determined but that it will start at B-and-B Bar and culminate at the American Legion. He said everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day and hopes to see a large turnout for the event.

— (Coyote 2 45 sec. "Everybody’s invited … end up at the American Legion.")

Coyote, whose mother is from Ireland, said he’s currently in search of someone to play the bagpipes for the parade as well as violinists, because the traditional music lends so much to the festivities. He said the parade will go on regardless of whether or not he finds the musicians he’s seeking.

— (Coyote 3 46 sec. "There was real good … we’ll have a good time.")

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade begins at 2 p.m. Tuesday at B-and-B on Shelikof. Coyote described the parade as a "mall crawl," in which members of the parade will be stopping in at Henry’s, Tony’s Bar and other watering holes, before ending at the American Legion.

I’m Erik Wander.

###