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The Best Way To Celebrate St Patrick’s Day All Around The World

The Best Way To Celebrate St Patrick’s Day All Around The World

With St Patrick’s Day comes a parade, and with the parade comes green, white and gold decorations, floats of a wide variety, dancing in the street (mostly of the Irish kind) and lots of drinking.

But for those with Irish heritage, or those who just love the daytime celebrations, where is the best place to honour the day? Is it Dublin’s Temple Bar district? Is it the bright lights of the Big Apple? Or is England a sure contender for Ireland flags, Irish dancing songs and daytime drinking?

Without further ado, we present to you the best ways to celebrate St Patrick’s Day all around the world…

America’s Bright Lights

New York

Around 150,000 people march in the St Patrick’s Parade in New York City every year, drawing around 2 million spectators. The parade route takes place on 5th avenue, starting in Midtown Manhattan at 11am and finishing at 5pm!

Get into the heart of it by visiting the Irish Arts Centre for authentic music, dances, craft workshops and the chance to learn to play the tin whislte, get your face painted, or simply sit back and watch the celebration of Irish culture.

If you prefer to celebrate without the crowds though, head down to lower-Manhattan for a walking tour that explores the ‘Little Ireland’ district. Learn about the incredible contribution Irish immigrants made to the overall history of the city…

 

St Louis

This year is the 48th annual St Patrick’s Day Parade in St Louis where the area celebrates with elaborate floats, marching bands and larger-than-life helium balloons.

The festivities will begin at 10am with the opening of the Leprachaun Village, an Irish-themed entertainment area for children and Shamrock Village, an Irish-themed entertainment area that features food, Irish whiskey and live entertainment in Aloe Plaza.

The true Celtic good times are at Llywelyn’s Pub where you’ll find an Irish menu and traditional Irish music that will have you dancing in a jig in no time. Another good after-parade stop is Maggie O’Brien’s at Market and 20th; this is the local hot spot for live music, pub theatre, St Louis sports and holiday parties…

 

Annapolis

The capital of Maryland takes St Patrick’s Day very seriously by dedicating a whole seven days to the celebration, calling it ‘Irish week’. Start with the Irish Hooley Party at Annapolis Waterfront Hotel where the event will include an opening ceremony gala dinner with Irish rock.

Or head to the Shamrock Bar Crawl where a pipe band will head the group through participating pubs in town before heading to the actual parade where you’ll see more than 90 floats from the local organisations.

Not to mention, every year dozens of volunteers gather to shave their head in solidarity for those suffering from childhood cancers. The volunteers raise money in support for the charity plus there’s plenty of beer on hand straight after!

 

Brum, Where The Heritage Lies

The Irish Stamp On The Second City

With over 100,000 people in Birmingham claiming Irish heritage the city centre goes into celebration accordingly. The locals take to the streets of Digbeth to follow the parade of Irish-themed floats, dancers, locals dressed in the finest green wigs, emerald waistcoats and leprachaun hats.

Feeling Green, Looking Green

The famous silver discs of iconic building, Selfridges, turned bright green for a whole week one year to celebrate the occasion.

On its 3rd year of changing its colour to suit the celebrations, it turned shamrock shade for a whole week for the first time making it the perfect view for the parade goers as they march up Digbeth high street bearing green, white and gold attire of their own.

On Your Landmarks, Get Set, Go…

2019 was the first ever Emerald Mile fun run ahead of the St Patrick’s Day parade which included 250 runners to kick off the festivities.

Starting at Camp Hill it lead onto Digbeth High Street and on towards the Bullring (where the city’s well-known landmark sat waiting dressed in its own Irish attire) before looping back round again.

There are outdoor stages in the Emerald Village and St Pat Rocks! area where locals will find live music, a funfair, kids activities, an artisan market, street food traders and outdoor bars so the celebrations can continue into the late hours…

 

Capital Celebrations

Downton Dublin

As you can imagine, Dublin go big. St Patrick’s Day turns into what is better known as ’50 days o’wee fun’! At the start of the month, Madison Street presents to you live musical performances, food vendors and rides during St Patrick’s Pig In The Park BBQ Championship!

This follows with an Arts & Crafts Festival in Downtown Dublin where artisans and food take centre stage at Market on Madison.

The parade itself will mean hundreds of floats will take to Jackson Street and Bellevue Avenue for the ultimate celebration where a sea of locals dressed in green, gold and white will dominate the area…

 

Temple Bar Traditions

If you want a Dublin district guaranteed to give you an overflow of the Irish celebrations, Temple Bar will be your dream. The famous tourist stop off will be filled with day drinkers in tall leprachaun hats, fake oragne beards and shamrock green outfits for the day.

Although it’d be hard to miss this sight, the annual parade cuts right through Temple Bar so at some point through the day you will find everybody here.

If you like to stay away from the madness, why not use this time to explore the local landmarks that celebrate the history of Ireland. The Guiness Factory and Old Jameson Distillery are essential spots for you to tick off your list, why not head here after appreciating the parade?

 

O’Connell Street

The Irish capital’s widest street is known best as ‘the centre of Dublin’ where the glitzy Grafton Street is found on the Southside O’Connell Street.

The parade comes down the east side of the street, lasts a whole 2.5 kilometres and brings over 650,000 Dubliners to watch as marching bands from ireland, Europe and the US partake in.

If you want some variety on the day of the parade then there’s plenty more to do, starting with the Festival Treasure Hunt. It takes around an hour and 45 minutes to complete and ends with a celebratory atmosphere in the City Hall with music, theatrics and prizes.

Or if you want to get to the very heart of the celebrations with some historic knowledge then opt for the In The Footsteps Of St Patrick Walking Tour. The company of the guides and renowned Dublin historians will mean you get to explore the places most tourists and Dubliners miss (St Patrick’s cathedral seems only right to visit…)

 

Those were the greatest ways to celebrate St Patrick’s Day all around the world. Where would you like to mark the annual Irish celebrations? Would you prefer to be in the bright lights of the Big Apple? Or is it only right to witness the parade in Ireland itself?…

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