St. Patrick's Day celebration with wristbands

Arrests up, turnout down as wristbands return to St. Patrick's Day celebration.



On Friday afternoon, there were still vacancies at a significant number of Savannah hotels, including several premier ones in the Historic District.

Just before 9 a.m. on Saturday, both the Whitaker Street and State Street garages still had spaces available, according to tweets from the city of Savannah.

The crowds on the sidewalk at my annual viewing spot were smaller than last year, and there were certainly fewer people trying to park in my neighborhood south of Forsyth Park.




While Saturday night turned into a predictable bacchanal, downtown was relatively quiet on both Thursday and Friday nights compared to many previous years.

So what gives?

The weather was sublime. The parade was on a Saturday. The economy is measurably stronger than any time in the last five years.

One possibility is that last year’s exaggerated talk of a turnout of 1 million partiers had the foreseeable effect of scaring off people who didn’t want to be part of that madness.

It might feel good to boast of massive attendance figures, but most of Savannah’s potential tourists are not looking to party hard all day and night in a packed throng.

And it also seems likely that the return of wristbands, plus tough talk about increasing arrests, widespread road closures and other stricter policies had the predictable effect of limiting turnout.

I’ve heard several people — ones who should know better — crediting the wristbands and the newly expanded festival zone with spreading out the crowds.

Wrong. The crowds spread out several years ago during the failed wristband experiment on River Street.

And I’ve heard that the wristbands brought more control. But why were there only 31 arrests last year, when the crowds were larger, compared to 79 this year?

If public policy emphasizes the drunken nature of the holiday, we will get more drunkenness. It’s a simple formula.

So despite the dearth of bars on Broughton Street, I saw many young adults drinking hard outside locked retail stores throughout the afternoon on Saturday.

I ran into a trio of men who had come downtown for a couple of drinks after the parade. They bought wristbands, only to discover that their $15 was wasted since they’d be long gone before enforcement began at 5 p.m.

At least one seller was telling drinkers they had to have wristbands as early as 3 p.m., while a few widely visited websites with official information were pretty hazy on the timing.

Those problems might be due to confusion caused by the overly complex ordinance, but some visitors suspected a money grab.