Parade prep: Savannah eatery builds popular float for St. Patrick’s Day

The Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Parade typically draws celebrity participants, from the Budweiser Clydesdales and University of Georgia mascot Uga to beauty pageant queens and high-ranking elected officials.

The parade showstoppers, though, are Barabbas and the Tribe.

For more than two decades, the Bahamian junkanoo band has escorted the tropical-themed float entry from the Crab Shack, a Tybee Island restaurant, through the streets of Savannah. Winston “Barabbas” Woodside and 40 other members of his Nassau-based crew visit every March to put on shows for 10 days at the eatery while also performing their parade duties.

The Crab Shack’s longtime owner, Capt. Jack Flanigan, forged a friendship with Woodside more than 50 years ago and recruited him to bring junkanoo to Savannah in 2003. Junkanoo is a street festival similar to Festivale or Mardi Gras held in the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands to celebrate the local culture.

Junkanoo parades are typically held on Dec. 26 and Jan. 1.

Justin Fowler, the Crab Shack’s current operator, said the relationship between the locals and Tribe performers continue to grow.

“Savannah and Tybee parades are both enhanced and enlightened by the presence of this group who bring their cultural heritage in the form of junkanoo costumes, music and performance to this area,” he said.