Tampa River O' Green - Rachel Radawec

Tampa dyes the Hillsborough River green on St. Patrick's Day. This year the city does it one day early, on Saturday (16), as part of an Irish-themed festival that includes Irish music, dance, food and a parade by the Rough Riders. We speak with Rachel Radawec of the Tampa Downtown Partnership. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the Newsonce again. Saint Patrick's Day is approaching
and it's the time of year thatdowntown Tampa, the Hillsboro River turns green.
It's not a tradition that Tampa started, but Tampa has certainly taken to
it. And this got a pauseduring the pandemic, but it's been back
with a vengeance for a couple ofyears and this year it's going to be

(00:20):
an all day event on Saturday,March sixteenth, the day before Saint Patrick's
Day. Rachel Rudwick is with theTampa Downtown Partnership, which organizes the event
every year. Our Rachel, thankyou and welcome to Beyond the News.
Thanks so much, Gordon, sohappy to be here. Well, I
guess we start with this since it'skind of the central event on Saturday,
what time does the river turn green? So we kick off at eleven am,

(00:44):
and like you mentioned, it isa full day of celebration, but
make sure that you get there alittle bit early so you can get a
good view of the river and what'sgoing to be going on there is there
are going to be boats out andthey're going to turn the river green.
And I understand you have that diethat you've picked out that is specifically environmentally
friendly. It is. It's environmentallyfriendly, it's got a lot of uses

(01:08):
that people don't think of. It'sused in search and rescue missions, it's
used in eye surgery. So onehundred environmentally safe. And we have a
great partnership with the City of Tampa'sWater Department. They're actually who helps deploy
the dye for us, and thoseguys love it. This is probably one
of their favorite days of the year. And while we might have not started
this tradition, we definitely perfected it. I think we do it better than

(01:30):
anybody else in the country. Now, there are a lot of other things
going on, as you mentioned before, or rather after the die is dropped,
and there's really a whole range ofdifferent entertainment. You've got music and
different sports. So tell us aboutthat, tell us about what's going to
be going on at CURTISIX and WaterfrontPark. So we're really excited this year.

(01:55):
We are infusing a lot more Irishheritage than we have in the past
for the event, and we're actuallychanging the footprint of the event so when
you come in, the event's goingto be anchored by the stage up by
Ashley Drive all the way down tothe river on the river walk side,
so you're gonna be fully encased inan Irish heritage. We have a couple
of Irish bands that will be playingthroughout the day. We have the Irish

(02:17):
Dance Academy that's going to be performing. We're working on a couple of Irish
theater options as well, and thenwe will also have some Irish art and
history, kind of like a gallerywalk if you will. And then obviously
that's kind of the entertainment side ofthings, but we also have food and
beverage. You can come down andget a Saint Patty's Day beer, you

(02:38):
can grab some food from our foodtrucks. We will have the Brisket shop
down there smoking some corn beef,which is very true to the holiday.
And it's just gonna be a greattime for everybody. We'll have some community
partners with games out there. Someof our sponsors will be their Freedom Boat
Company is returning and if you area member or a potential member, you

(02:58):
could actually get out onto the GreenRiver, which is something we started last
year. And then probably the coolestthing about this year's celebration is. While
our event goes till six pm,the rough Riders parade kicks off at five.
Now you bring up the rough Ridersand they have moved their parade from
Ebor City into downtown this year.How does that affect parking and getting around

(03:22):
and getting to the festival. Whatdo people need to know? So this
is everybody's favorite topic. Everybody wantsto know how to get around in downtown.
So there's kind of two parts toit. You really need to understand
that the road closures are going toset in around two PM, maybe a
little bit earlier, so prepare accordingly. If you want to come down and
see the river go green, getthere early. If you're planning on coming

(03:44):
in later in the day, maybethink of different options for parking, because
those garages will fill up fast.If you're coming from the north, my
recommendation is the po Parking Garage ifyou're coming early, and the south is
the Fort Brook Garage. Both ofthose are city garages and will be accessible
with out any road closure interruption.But if you want to be a little
bit more adventurous, maybe you canpark over an eboor and take the streetcar

(04:08):
into downtown. Because it is onehundred percent free. They'll be bike and
scooter parking on site at the event, and the Downtown Partnership has an amazing
new service called Dash, so youcould park at a remote parking lot somewhere
in downtown and take our Dash serviceinto the event. What's the best place
or I assume there's a website ora Facebook page or something like that to

(04:31):
get information about the whole festival andeverything going on that day downtown. The
easiest way to get real time updatesabout what is happening for River of Green
and any events that the Tampa DowntownPartnership is doing is to follow us on
social media and are handled at Tampa'sDowntown Excellent. Rachel Roderick with the Tampa
Downtown Partnership, thank you very muchfor joining us on Beyond the News. Thank you