Patchogue's after-St. Patrick's Day parade

The Swan Lake Park Civic Association's float -- depicting an unfortunate soul being crushed by the Blarney stone -- was the beginning of the end of New York's monthlong St. Patrick's Day parade season.

Patchogue's parade, held Sunday, 10 days after the March 17 holiday, may seem a little belated. But Mayor Paul Pontieri said the scheduling was a matter of logistics.

The event -- which kicked off one hour later than the Bay Ridge St. Patrick's parade in Brooklyn -- stays distanced from the holiday so it can attract A-list bands, Pontieri said.

"With the Rocky Points and Montauks, you'll never get the bands" close to the holiday, he said, adding that "earlier in the month it's too cold."

There were more than three dozen St. Patrick's Day parades in New York between March 5 and Sunday, according to SaintPatricksDayParade.com. Only the New York City parade was on March 17, and some of the other city parades -- Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse -- held theirs the weekends before or after the holiday, the site states.

Tim Kelly of Cutchogue, a bagpiper with Peconic Warpipes pipe and drum corps of Center Moriches, said the smaller parades like Patchogue's have to wait a few more days. "It's St. Patrick's month," Kelly said. "It's our equivalent of March Madness."

Bay Ridge parade organizer Jerry Callahan, who anticipated "quite a few thousand people" at the Brooklyn event, cited similar reasons for choosing late March.

"This is the best time of year because we can get the best bands and the best marching groups," he said. "Everyone's available."

In Patchogue, "everyone" included the Saffron United Pipe Band of Babylon, a five-decades-old band that competes nationally. Piper Hank O'Neill said the Patchogue parade, which attracted about 2,000 people Sunday, is a fun low-key affair.

"The city parade is the parade, and I wouldn't want to miss that for anything," he said. "But this parade, it's nice, it's local."

Patchogue resident Rick Fulton, watching the parade with his daughter Hannah and dog Sassy, agreed. "It's kind of late to be doing St. Patrick's Day," he said. "But we enjoy it."