Downtown Harlem got lucky with the Shamrock and Roll Festival on Saturday, March 18. The weekend St. Patrick’s Day bazaar kicked off with a parade along Louisville Street consisting of golf carts decked out in festive green.
The Harlem Merchants Association awards the most creatively decorated golf cart with a prize that gets passed every year, and that winning cart leads the parade the following year.
“I call it the Grand Poo-bah,” said event organizer Tara McNaylor about the award.
Available activities included face-painting, a bounce house and even gem mining by Elduets Adventures & Events, an Appling amusements business that also featured at the Small Business Expo in Harlem earlier this month.
Saturday marked Harlem’s third time hosting the Irish-themed festival, canceled last year due to inclement weather. Booths set up on the lawn of the Harlem Library, an expansive space compared to Glenn Phillips Memorial Park in previous years. This year the festival boasted some 16 booths, including four food vendors, mostly with businesses from Harlem or otherwise throughout Columbia County.
“We weren’t able to have any vendor booths in the park because it was too small,” McNaylor said. “This year, we were able to bring all of the artisan vendors out as well.”
Frannie Mae’s Sweet Treats, a Harlem dessert vendor that participated in the previous Shamrock and Roll, had sold out of most its menu less than two hours in.
“It was busy,” said Chernita Edwards, owner of Frannie Mae’s, contrasting 2021’s festival with Saturday’s. “But not like today.”
Fairytale Dreams of Augusta even had an appearance by Merida, the (Scottish) princess heroine of the Disney film “Brave,” complete with a green dress and an archer’s bow.
“We’ve been walking around, greeting kids and taking pictures,” said Ashtyn Figgins, a character performer with Fairytale Dreams.
The Augusta branch of the Sarah Costello Irish Dance Academy gave a performance for visitors and vendors there, with beginners and championship-winners among the troupe of young stepdancers.
“[St. Patrick’s Day] is our busiest time of year,” said dance instructor Kaleigh Killebrew.
McNaylor, a realtor in the town, said that the festival is one of many events coordinated as part of the Merchant Association’s ongoing initiative to invite more people to the town and dispel the idea that it’s too distant and isolated to visit and enjoy.
“What can we do to bring people to the main street and see how stinking adorable it is, and get to know the businesses, which are wonderful,” she said. “That’s kind of how it came about: what kind of events can we do that will bring people in, so they’ll realize [Harlem] is not that far.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
