Milford's St. Patrick's Day Parade will make its debut Saturday after being put on hold since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

Parade chief organizer Michael McCabe says it is bittersweet because one of the co-founders of the Irish Heritage Society in Milford recently died.

Marty Hardiman died two weeks ago.

"Mr. Hardiman was one of the co-founders of the Irish Heritage Society. He and his wife had run the parade for 30 years. He was an alderman in town. It's a big loss to the town," McCabe says.

The parade committee says that they hope to make Hardiman proud by bringing back many crowd favorites, including a marching band, pipe bands, fife and drum bands, and floats.

McCabe says he hopes to see a crowd of 20,000 spectators.

The parade will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday. Roads will be closed downtown starting at noon.

Norwalk and Greenwich will also hold parades this weekend.