Sweet Potato Queens tell Jackson to take this parade and shove it, they ain't marchin' here no more

WLBT broke this yesterday evening, but JFP just posted a more in-depth piece today.  Jill Conner Browne, head Sweet Potato Queen, has determined that Downtown Jackson is too small for her Queens.  She apparently thinks the Renaissance strip mall in Ridgeland is more fitting for her group.  (Yeah, Madison County's gonna love their family-friendly act.)  Feedback on this has been rather negative for the SPQs, but I don't expect Her Highness to go back on her decision. 

After it's all said and done, the SPQ's are Jill's thing, so if she wants to wreck it, that's up to her.  My analysis is that the vast majority of the crowds at the annual Mal's St. Paddy's Parade show up for reasons other than the Queens.  Namely, they come Downtown to celebrate creativity, the emergence of Spring, and to just plain party.  With respect to the women who travel in from around the country (and world) to be a part of the SPQ vibe, I think a good number of them won't like the change.  For example, I ran into several dozen Queens from around the country Friday night at Hal & Mal's, and they were rather disgruntled over not having the annual Parade Eve SPQ party there.  (They all jumped in cabs and came down from the County Line Hilton, where they'd been cooped-up by Her Highness.)  I'm pretty certain they weren't the only ones.

In the end, I can't help but think this will be a minor loss for Jackson, and a major loss for Jill.

Video of early Mal's St. Paddy's Parade in Downtown Jackson

WLBT posted a video of the 1983 Mal's St. Paddy's Parade in Downtown Jackson.  The title says "The 1st Mal's St. Paddy's Parade," but this was actually from the 2nd one.  The first Parade was held in 1982.  Awesome video, nonetheless.  Check out the cars driving down the opposite side of the street.  My, how it's grown.

h/t WLBT's Twitter feed