Organizers of the World’s Shortest St. Paddy’s Day parade in Adamsville didn’t know they were creating a monster when they founded their parade as a joke four years ago.

But there it was Sunday afternoon, an enormous, shamrock-green, 89-foot dragon that weaved, sputtered and slithered its way down Main Road, roaring and spitting smoke and soap bubbles at the deep crowds that lined either side of the route five and six deep.

Had a key one-foot-long balloon not popped at the starting line, the dragon might have had the distinction of being the first parade float in history to be both over the finish line, and before the start line, simultaneously.

It was built by Chris Pietraszek and his girlfriend Morgann Munro, first at his house and then when they ran out of room, completed in the massive food and music tent just behind the parade route. In all, it took some 2,000 balloons to build, said Pietraszek, a magician and sword swallower with The Finnegan Circus. He is also the owner of What The Fun Inc., and said the dragon is easily the largest thing he’s ever built.

The parade itself? It’s become a monster too and organizers couldn’t be happier.

Though estimates are just that, at least as many people showed up this year as last, when the number came in at around 2,000. Guests traveled from as far away as Arkansas and California, and news crews from Providence, Boston and Arkansas showed up to record the event.

Despite its tiny size — it is still the world’s shortest St. Paddy’s Day parade despite competition from Hot Springs, Ark., which is longer by nine feet — the parade has become a huge deal and a godsend for the Little Compton Food Bank and four other local banks, the main benefactors of the thousands of dollars it brings in every year.

Volunteers will need it too, a food bank marcher said just prior to the start, as expected funding cuts to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will likely impact the local bank, which receives assistance from the partially federally funded Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

In case you missed it:

• They were marketed as tough, muscle-bound enforcers of Little Rock’s claim to the shortest parade, but it turns out 23-time world champion arm wrester ‘The Monster Mike’ Todd and wife Becca, also a championship arm wrestler, are big softies.

The couple, with a Hot Springs news crew in tow, flew in and quickly fell in love with Adamsville. But while he’s indeed huge, Mike and his right arm didn’t have much luck against the muscle Adamsville brought to the table.

Just after the route was officially measured, organizers brought an arm-wrestling table out into the middle of the road (striped green before the parade), and Monster Mike failed to beat either New England Patriots legend Troy Brown’s young son, or Kitty Hayes, Little Compton’s longest-running resident of Irish descent — Hayes was cheered on by guests who yelled “Take him! Take him!” as they wrestled to a tie.

“Thanks for having us out,” The Monster told the crowd afterwards as he pulled out a $500 donation for the Little Compton Food Bank. “This is awesome. And officially, you are the world’s shortest day before St. Patrick’s Day,  so we (in Arkansas) are still the world’s shortest St. Patrick’s Day parade.”

• Brown, a key part of the Patriots’ dominance in the early aughts and teens and the parade’s guest of honor, was in big demand and shook hands with everyone he saw when not blowing bubbles with his grandson. More than a few guests tossed him footballs as he made it down the route, and he didn’t miss a one.

“I love this!” he said afterwards.

•Not to be outdone, and not even trying to compete with the massive dragon float, one float designer took note and sent out a tiny remote-controlled pickup truck that didn’t measure a foot tall, including the green top hat perched on top of the cab. It towed an equally tiny rainbow on an equally tiny trailer.

•Little Compton police, DPW and other services expected a big crowd and were ready for it. Police closed off the parade route to traffic at 1 p.m., allowing marchers and others to get past the barricades so they could make it to their appointed spots. Parade organizers also encouraged visitors to carpool, and many did.

•Westport’s Bootleg BBQ has provided corned beef and cabbage since the parade’s first running. This year, owner Fred Melnyk and his fellow workers served more than 200 Irish boiled dinners heaped with corned beef, cabbage, carrots potatoes, and Irish soda bread. It’s become so popular that dinner tickets sold out less than a week after they went on sale about a month and a half ago. There was Guinness and Harpoon to wash it down, as well as non-alcoholic stuff for teetotalers.

• The parade committee brings in funds through many sponsorships and is led by Humphrey’s Building Supply, which one event organizer said “has been instrumental in helping us put this together every year — we couldn’t do it without them.” Between the sponsors, the dinner and merch sales, organizers said they expect to bring in close to $40,000 which will be distributed to food banks in Little Compton, Tiverton, Westport, Fall River and Providence.

• The dragon won this year’s first-ever float contest, and here’s what judge Perry Blake had to say:

“Really gotta give it to the big balloon dragon. Wow. That was stand up to any St. Patrick’s Day float,” he said. “It rules. The smoke gag, the bubbles and the sheer size and great craftsmanship make it my winner.”

• This year’s Grand Marshals were Little Compton’s Griffin family, and Joyce and Rob said a few words between acts under the tent later in the day. They also wrote two limericks, one of which goes:

“There once was a man from LC

Who said, ‘Short parades? That’s for me!’

With Griffins and beer,

A wink and a cheer,

He grins, ‘This is how it should be!’”