LepreCon 2024 Bar Crawls Will Return To Hoboken In 4 Weeks

HOBOKEN, NJ — The 10 a.m. lines at bars. The beers. The racy t-shirts. They're all part of Hoboken's moneymaking bar crawls near Christmas and St. Patrick's Day, and while local residents love to loathe them, arrests and troubling incidents have gone down each year, Hoboken officials have said recently.

Still, there's nothing like being prepared.

Hoboken's St. Patrick's themed bar crawls kick off on Saturday, March 2 with the self-proclaimed "Official Hoboken LepreCon Bar Crawl 2024" that day. According to a website, it starts at Madd Hatter on Washington Street at 10 a.m.

"In Hoboken, New Jersey, the first Saturday in March is always a special day," says the site. "This year, our 'All Access Pass' is the only package you'll need to enjoy the full day in excitement, as all of Hoboken's best clubs and bars unite on a star-studded event."

The site says more than 12 bars will participate.

These bar crawls are planned by independent organizations and bars and not by the city. Restaurants have said that revenue from events like these carries them throw the slower months.

Various otehr bar craws are planned for the first three weekends in March in Hoboken.

Origin Story

The crawls ramped up 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 recent years, public safety officials have said that the events, including SantaCon in December, are more "subdued" due to police enforcement and publicizing of fines.

“The annual unsanctioned bar crawl events on the first weekend in March continue to have substantially reduced participation and are now tame events, compared to years past," said Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla last year.

Meanwhile, after posting a survey about whether to bring back to the parade last year, a local business group sent a float through the streets.

See photos of the last LepreCon before the pandemic lockdown here.