Romanza-St. Augustine's St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Augustine has been drawing visitors since 2011. The organization does not plan any future Celtic festivals or parades. | Old City Public Relations
Published on August 11, 2026 at 2:45 pm
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Romanza-St. Augustine’s annual celebration of Celtic culture is calling it quits.
The organization behind the Celtic Music & Heritage Festival as well as the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade says a lack of funding from Florida’s arts and culture grants as well as other difficulties contributed to the decision.
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The organization will not host a festival or parade in 2027.
The nationally recognized events have drawn crowds to sample whiskey, take part in the Highland Games and browse vendors set up in St. Augustine’s historic downtown since beginning in 2011.
Romanza-St. Augustine President Albert Syeles says a number of factors led to the decision, chief among them the organization’s difficulty finding new faces to run the event.
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“I’m getting old; so is my entire board,” Syeles says. “It’s something we do on a volunteer basis, and we love doing it, but there’s only so much you can do after a while. You get tired.”
Couple that with flagging state and county funding, increased cost of labor and other developments, and Syeles says the last several years have been difficult.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected events across the country, but so has the U.S.’ immigration policies, Syeles says.
“Our bands from Ireland, Scottland and even Canada were having trouble getting work visas to come to the United States,” he says.
Syeles hopes to see celebrations of St. Augustine’s Irish ancestry continue. The city, after all, boasts what is believed to be the oldest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in America.
“There’s a lot of culture here that isn’t just Spanish or British — it’s Irish, it’s Scottish,” he says. “There’s a lot of history here, remarkable history.”
Beyond the Celtic Festival
It’s not just Romanza-St. Augustine that has experienced funding challenges. Nonprofit organizations around the area and the state have cited Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to eliminate arts and culture funding in 2024 as a major hurdle.
With no Celtic Festival or St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the calendar for next year, Romanza-St. Augustine is hard at work planning its next big event, the annual Romanza Festivale.
Whether that event will continue beyond 2027, Syeles says, is still an open question.
“That’s a lot of work, too,” he says, “and many of the same people are involved.”
That event is currently scheduled for May 2027.
