Leprecon 2023 Bar Crawl Scheduled To Return To Hoboken Before St. Patrick's Day

HOBOKEN, NJ — While bar crawls in Hoboken don't seem to be arousing the sort of excitement — and ire — they did in past years, organizers are still planning to hold the infamous "Leprecon" bar crawl this year on Saturday, March 4, 2023.

The crawls began in 2012 after Hoboken's independent St. Patrick's Parade Committee — a decades-old group that was not a part of city government — posted a letter on its website saying it would cancel the 26th annual parade that year. They had traditionally held the family-friendly parade the first Saturday in March to secure the best bands.

But as more young people partied in Hoboken, and held house parties on the same day as the parade, then-Mayor Dawn Zimmer suggested the event be held on a weeknight instead of Saturday. The organizers said no, and independent entrepreneurs swooped in to fill the void.

Each year, they held St. Patrick's-themed and "Leprecon" bar crawls on the first Saturday.

In 2020, six people were arrested the day of Hoboken's crawl. It was the last such event for a while: two weeks later, bars were shut due to the pandemic.

St. Patrick's Parade Coming Back?

"The Hoboken Business Alliance is considering a proposal to reinstitute a family-friendly St. Patrick’s Day Parade, to replace the current unsanctioned bar crawl that has previously taken place on the first Saturday of March," said the city said in a message blast to residents Nov. 2, 2022.

"To gain public input into this proposal, the HBA today launched an online public survey for members of the Hoboken community."

As of Feb. 9, the Hoboken Business Alliance had not yet announced the results of the survey, or whether the parade will be held next month.

The "family-friendly" event would take place the first Saturday in March, the November survey said.

Local restaurants have said that St. Patrick's Day and a few other holiday seasons provide revenue to help them stay in business during downtime.

Business Alliance Board of Trustees President James Runkle said last year, "The idea is that that time of year is a little slow ... That’s where the family-friendly idea came in, that it’s in different parts of the city, not just focused on Washington Street.”

In recent years, the city has increased fines for alcohol-related offenses during the crawls. Law enforcement officials said arrests have declined during "cons" each year.

Starting at 10 a.m.

The organizers of one of the planned crawls for next month said, "Keep the tradition alive and well! That's precisely what we plan to do. The annual event that brings high energy to an already electric Hoboken in March is rapidly arriving. Not only will the weather warm up, but it will also be the ideal way to kick off the celebrations for St. Patrick's Day."

They're offering an "all access pass" and that people check in between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at either of two bars on lower Washington Street.

"All of Hoboken's top bars will be packed," they wrote. "So make sure you're ready!"

They listed eight bars that are involved, and said more will be announced, "plus some of Hoboken's best St. Patrick's Day Parties."

The last major holiday bar crawl in Hoboken, "Santacon 2022," resulted in 300 police calls and four arrests that weekend — but that was close to a "typical" weekend, said Hoboken Public Safety Director Ken Ferrante at the time.