St. Patrick's Day: Thousands of lines in San Francisco's Market Street for an annual parade

San Francisco (KGO) – From flags that waved Pipers Piping, Irish pride on Saturday morning was on the market road of San Francisco.

“We love the firefighters, we love the police officers, we love the city,” said Bissy Sancimino, resident of Richmond District, who was witnessed to St. Patrick's Day of the city with thousands more with witnesses to the annual parade. “It is proud of our legacy. It is proud to be Irish. Even if you are not Irish, you have all your friends and family who might be.”

“It's a tradition. I've been doing it since my child, so I brought my children here. Three or three beautiful daughters,” said Fatima Alagazzali, who made the journey from Berkeley.

“This year's parade will be a crack that will be roaring. We have 130 swimmers there,” said Parade Director James Quinn. “I expect 15 to 20,000 people a bit enthusiastic in recent years.”

Clock: 2025 San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade

The mayor of San Francisco, Daniel Lurie, joined the parade and welcomed the voters on the way.

“It is one of the big days of the year in San Francisco. We have tens of thousands of people out here. I feel Irish today,” said Lurie. “This city is on the rise. Take a look at this amount in the early Saturday. I feel optimistic and hopeful in the future of our city.”

San Francisco's chief of police, Bill Scott, also went into the parade and found that it is all hands on deck for the event to protect the crowd.

“We have a lot of officers in the parade, but we are also fully used,” said Scott, who also hired the Irish. “We have so much Irish heritage in our department. From day one, the SFPD was built on the back of our Irish heritage.”