By Annie Driver
The Birmingham St. Patrick’s Festival and Parade committee have confirmed the parade will be going ahead on 15th March after receiving funding from Chasetown Civil Engineers and Court Collaboration who were announced as the official partners of the event.
It was announced the parade was at risk after headline sponsor Kiely Bros Ltd withdrew sponsorship for the event last month putting the parade in jeopardy: ‘This substantial contribution comes in the wake of recent public and civic concerns around the future of St. Patrick’s Festival and Parade, and thanks to many businesses and individuals from the community coming forward, the organising team are happy to announce the future of the much-loved community is secure for another year’.
Festival Chairperson Peter Connolly said: “We are hugely grateful and incredibly pleased to be able to confirm Chasetown Civil Engineers and Court Collaboration as our partners for the 2020 edition of The Birmingham St. Patrick’s Festival and Parade. It has been a very stressful few weeks, and the organising committee would like to take this opportunity to thank Chasetown and Court Collaboration, without their support the parade simply wouldn’t be happening this year.
“We also want to thank the community for coming out and offering such incredible support and determination to ensure the parade happens, it truly is a testament to how important the parade is to the Birmingham and Birmingham Irish community.
“We want to especially thank Pat O’Niel, the Birmingham Irish Association, and Birmingham City Council Event’s Team for all the time and support they have dedicated to helping secure the future of the parade, we are now looking forward to sharing with you all our stage line up, Emerald Village and parade inclusion details. ”
The theme of this year’s parade is ‘The Irish Quarter’; ‘a theme which is more fitting than ever given today’s announcement and will pay homage to the contribution Irish workers made to the rebuilding of Birmingham in the post-War period and the ongoing development of Digbeth’.
Chasetown Civil Engineering, based in Staffordshire, have worked on buildings in the local area. Noel Sweeney, founder of Chasetown Civil Engineering, said:
‘We are delighted to be able to support this event, which means so much to so many. The St. Patrick’s Parade in Birmingham has been a long-standing tradition and celebrates the work of many that have gone before us. It means a lot to so many and we are proud to be partners of this year’s event. We hope everyone comes out to support and celebrate Irish heritage and the culture of Birmingham with us this year’
Court Collaboration has numerous developments across the city with the most recent addition to this being the Stone Yard Development in Digbeth which is located on the main route of the parade. Anthony McCourt said:
‘We are proud to be announced as partners of The Birmingham St. Patrick’s Parade today.
We believe that property isn’t about bricks and mortar, it’s about people, and naturally when we heard the future of the parade was at risk we wanted to ensure that the city’s biggest celebration could continue.
We now look forward to seeing the streets of Digbeth come to life in a sea of green to celebrate Irish heritage and Birmingham culture’.
Other sponsors include The High Street Group, DP Interiors, A and C Contracts, Peaky Blinders Irish Whiskey, Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Tourism Ireland, Birmingham Irish Business Association, Zellig, Digbeth Estates, Mark Ponsonby, Nissan Walsh, SheMac Construction and others.
The Official Launch Party will kick off the celebrations at the Holiday Inn Smallbrook Queensway, on Friday 6th March 2020, followed by the festival events and activity throughout the city leading up to parade day.
