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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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The Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade & Festival is now the Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade & Festival in honor of the late Hal White. Though the parade has undergone a name change, it will be the same route as last year’s parade.

The parade will start at the corner of State and Court streets as usual. As floats and marchers make their way up State Street, they will hook a left on Pearl Street and then a left on Lamar Street and back to Court Street.

The Buckethead Judges will be stationed at the corner of East Pearl and South State streets, not the historically popular watch locations in front of the Governor’s Mansion and along that street.

This year’s theme is “HAL’lelu’Y’all” in honor of White. For more information, visit halsstpaddysparade.com.

What’s When & Where

Friday, March 18, 2016

3 p.m. – Hal’s Marching MALfunction and Second Line Stomp begins at Cathead Distillery.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

7 a.m. – Float lineup begins.

8 a.m. – Fleet Feet Sports St. Paddy’s Day 5K begins at the Jackson Convention Complex.

9 a.m. – Clarion-Ledger St. Paddy’s Children’s Festival begins on South Lamar Street in front of the Mississippi Museum of Art.

10 a.m. – The pet parade begins on South Lamar Street in front of the Mississippi Museum of Art.

11 a.m. – Children’s parade begins on South Lamar Street in front of the Mississippi Museum of Art.

1 p.m. – Parade begins.

2:45 p.m. – Hal’s St. Paddy’s Festival begins at Hal & Mal’s (200 S. Commerce St., 601-948-0888, halandmals.com).

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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.