Get your green scarves out and your whiskey in a jar, because Montreal's annual St, Patrick's Day parade is just around the corner.

For the first time in a few years, the parade will fall on St. Patrick's Day itself, on Sunday, March 17.

Organizers laid out their plans for the parade at a press conference at City Hall this afternoon.

Revellers can expect 20 bands, 18 floats, a float filled with Canadian Olympians and 300 police cadets.

Organizer Patty McCann says the parade is smaller than in past years, primarily for security reasons.

"We're trying to instill safety," McCann says. "We're trying to get rid of the big tractor-trailers as much as we can."

The 190th St Patrick's Day parade will start at the corner of Fort and Ste-Catherine at noon and will make its way to Phillips Square.

It's expected to last two and a half hours.