The St. Patrick's Day Parade is Trying Really Hard to Be 'Family-Friendly'

Just like last year, the organizers behind the Lower Greenville St. Patrick's Day parade — or, as it's officially called these days, the Dallas St. Patrick's Parade & Festival — are doing their damnedest to make the annual event more "family-friendly."

This year there will be a special kid-friendly area called Mavs Corner (recall that the event is now sponsored by the Dallas Mavericks) located "outside the Meadows Building between Milton Street and University Boulevard at Greenville Avenue," where people with their kids in tow can find face-painting, balloon animals and the Mavs cheerleaders, because what could be more kid-appropriate than scantily clad hotties?

Of course, this all raises the question: Is an event where adults begin boozing at 8 a.m. really an ideal place for kids anyhow? Face painters and balloon animals aside, the St. Patrick's Day parade will inevitably turn out to be the same raucous, drunken shitshow that it always is — and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

· Dallas St. Patrick's Parade Goes Family-Friendly [DMN]
· St. Patrick's Day Parade to Be More 'Upscale', Less Drunk [-EDFW-]

Booze-a-Palooza at the 2011 parade. [Photo: St. Patrick's Day Parade (Greenville Avenue)/Facebook]