Move over, Santa — Here comes the LepreCon: Downtown Riverhead plans March 7 pub crawl salute to St. Paddy

When organizers of the Jamesport St. Patrick’s Day parade were brainstorming fundraising ideas to help bring renowned pipe bands to the second annual event this March, they thought of Riverhead’s hugely successful SantaCon.

“A lepre-con seemed like the perfect thing,” East End Emerald Society cofounder John Cuddy told RiverheadLOCAL last month.

The Dec. 6 Santa-themed pub crawl raised $7,800 for New Beginnings Community Center’s Brendan House project and brought hundreds of costumed customers into downtown bars and restaurants for a night of revelry and good cheer.

So Cuddy and said he and the other founders of the East End Emerald Society, formed last year to produce the parade, spoke with the folks at the Suffolk Theater, who organized the Dec. 6 SantaCon event.

The result is the March of The Leprechauns, a pub crawl salute to St. Paddy planned for Saturday, March 7.

Participating downtown restaurants and bars so far include Suffolk Theater, Vines and Hops, Joe’s Garage and Grill, Tweeds, Crooked Ladder Brewing Company, Digger’s, Cliff’s Rendezvous, Riverhead Diner and Grill, Hotel Indigo East End, and Uncle Joe’s Pizzeria and Cafe.

The March of the Leprechauns will benefit the East End Emerald Society and Maureen’s Haven, according to a press release issued yesterday by the Suffolk Theater.

Participants are expected to dress as “all things Irish,” according to Nicole Evers of the Suffolk Theater.

The March will begin at 1 p.m. Participating vendors will offer special promotions and activities to all customers wearing special March of the Leprechauns bracelets, which cost $10 each and will be available at all participating vendors and online. Check the event’s Facebook page for more details as they become available.

Net proceeds from the sale of bracelets will go to the East End Emerald Society in support of the Jamesport St. Patrick’s Day Parade and to Maureen’s Haven, and organization that provides shelter and services to the homeless on the East End.

The Jamesport St. Patrick’s Day Parade is planned for Saturday, March 28, according to East End Emerald Society cofounder Sean O’NeiLL. It will be bigger and better than the inaugural event, held last March 22. The parade, organized last-minute with only about a month’s lead-time, drew about 40 groups to march, with nearly a dozen of them showing up unannounced.

Cuddy said he,  O’NeiLL and Emerald Society cofounders Walter Magee and Brandon Hewes have been working on plans for the second annual parade since last year. The permit paperwork was already completed and filed with the town last month, he said.

The Jamesport parade last year was the first-ever St. Patrick’s Day parade held in the Town of Riverhead.