St. Patrick’s Day is one of America’s favorite holidays, and you don’t have to be Irish to get out and celebrate.
Over 60% of people did something to celebrate St. Paddy’s last year — which means March 17 is a fantastic excuse to organize an event of your own and capitalize on the fun.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a small venue owner looking to bring in new business with a themed party, a community group keen on holding a big block party, or a professional event organizer creating a large-scale Irish cultural event.
St. Patrick’s Day is full of opportunity. And if you need a hand planning your St. Patrick’s Day party, we’ve got lots of ideas.
Read on to get St Patrick’s Day party ideas for adults, unique activities to celebrate Irish culture, and virtual St Patrick’s Day ideas — plus some tips on how to throw a great St Patrick’s Day party wherever you are.
Table of contents
St. Patrick’s Day party ideas for adults
St. Patrick’s Day party ideas to showcase Irish culture
Family-friendly St. Patrick’s Day party ideas
St. Patrick’s Day activities for work
Virtual St. Patrick’s Day ideas
How do you throw a good St Patrick’s Day party?
Bonus: St. Patrick’s Day themes and origins
How to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in your area
St. Patrick’s Day party ideas for adults
Celebrate Irish-American heritage in your community with these St. Patrick’s Day event ideas for grown-ups. For your convenience, we’ve given them ratings to indicate how complicated, expensive, and family-friendly these ideas can be.
How we scored the ideas: An event with a difficulty of one 🍀 is easy to throw together on short notice, while an event with three or more might take months to plan.
In the same way, an event with one 💰 would be very inexpensive to put together — you might even be able to do it with items you already have. On the other hand, if it has five, you might have to spend hundreds of dollars to put it all together. (Worth it, though).
Finally, an event with one 🎩 wouldn’t be very family-friendly at all — think an event that wouldn’t accept anyone under the legal drinking age. An event with five could be a huge hit with kids of all ages.
1. Host a bar crawl
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩
Invite St. Patrick’s Day revelers to participate in a bar crawl in your area. Encourage local bars to participate, offering drink specials to anyone attending the crawl.
Tickets can get party-goers into all participating bars at no charge, and you can even offer a t-shirt for participants to wear. Food coupons to nearby restaurants and giveaways can make your bar crawl even more enticing.
Just make sure to partner with the local bars to let them know how many people are coming and when. You should also bring a photographer and videographer so everyone can remember their night out without worrying about taking selfies themselves, the way that PubCrawls.com does.
2. Make it a day party
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩
A day party will have less competition with other St. Patrick’s Day events in the evening hours. Plus, when you start your event earlier, it can carry on longer. Even more, you might want to host your event in conjunction with your community’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, which likely takes place during the day.
Hosting a daytime St. Patrick’s Day party allows you to tap into many ideas, whether you’re hosting a breakfast buffet, featuring traditional Irish fare, or giving revelers a spot to sit and watch the local parade.
For example, The Historic Sharpe House’s St. Patrick’s Tea 2025 offers a morning of traditional Irish fare and freshly brewed black tea — giving party-goers a festive way to kick off their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
3. Shamrock ball
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩
A Shamrock ball celebrates St. Patrick’s Day while raising money for a worthy cause. This cocktail or black-tie event can feature a plated dinner, drinks, and entertainment. Ticket sales can go toward a charity of your choice or host a silent auction to raise additional money.
If you’re hosting yours as a charity gala, consider including a raffle or sponsorships from local businesses. When talking with sponsors, emphasize the value of the cause you’re supporting and provide examples of how prominently you could feature their names and logos on your programs and other event marketing materials.
4. Screen an Irish movie (or two)
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩
Keep things cultured with a film screening. Guests can buy drinks and snacks — green popcorn, anyone? — and enjoy classic Irish films. Our recommendations for feel-good films are “The Commitments,” “Once,” and “Killing Bono.” For something more historical and thematic, go with “The Wind that Shakes the Barley.”
Instead of popcorn and movie theater candy, consider serving some traditional Irish snacks like Keogh’s potato chips. You could even have guests bring their own Irish-themed food, similar to what Torrington Library in Hartford, CT, does at their BYOD and A MOVIE events.
5. Themed pop-up bar
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a themed pop-up bar. Transform any venue or attraction into a St. Patrick’s Day party and serve Irish-inspired craft cocktails.
Consider partnering with local food trucks or restaurants that can offer some Irish fare. Public School House in Cottleville, Missouri, hosted a “Shamrocked” event complete with catered food and signature cocktails.
Just make sure to incorporate the theme into the party as much as possible. That could mean dyeing food and drinks green, playing Irish music, or even opening up a microphone so people can read their own limericks.
6. Music and cultural festival
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩
Showcase Irish culture and tradition with an Irish festival in your community. Partner with other local businesses to offer a well-rounded event featuring entertainment, food, and drink. Naptown Events in Annapolis, Maryland, hosts a Shamrock the Dock event featuring live music, Irish dancing, bagpipe performances, and food and drink offerings.
To take it up a notch, try inviting musical groups, cooks, or cultural figures like writers or speakers from Ireland. That way, you can keep the traditions alive and well and build an even stronger connection between Ireland and your home.
Want to reach interested attendees in your area?
7. St. Patrick’s Day silent disco
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩
St. Patrick’s Day is an amazing opportunity to host a fun, holiday-themed club night. But in 2025, clubbing can be a little different. Enter the St. Paddy’s Day silent disco.
Start by setting up multiple dance stations featuring Irish pop music, Irish rock, and folkloric Irish music so that your dancers have a wide range of sounds from the Emerald Isle. Then, you can pass out headphones at the event space entrance and leave guests in control of their own soundtrack.
From there, simply add in some Irish cocktails and Guinness, and you’ve got a modern dance party! You could even turn this idea on its head and schedule it as a morning event — serving fresh Irish tea and smoothies instead of alcohol.
A silent disco is brilliant as a standalone event like SE2 SILENT DISCO did for their St. Patrick’s Day Silent Disco at 500 Pearl. But you can also use your silent disco as a bolt-on activity to complement a wider event like an Irish cultural festival or pub crawl.
8. Beer and yoga
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩
St Patrick’s Day isn’t synonymous with yoga — but this is a fun and unique way to help guests unwind while also celebrating Irish culture.
For lessons in best practice, take a look at personal trainer Alicia Franci Uresti and her Beer and Yoga at Murphy’s Irish Pub event. Each immersive yoga session includes a ticket for a free beer, and we’re totally here for it!
Not only is this a quirky way to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day, but it’s also the perfect party idea to include as your first stop on a big bar crawl so that guests can relax before things start to get a bit more lively.
9. Organize an Irish games competition
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩
Want to unleash a little bit of friendly competition? Organize a tournament of fun-filled games in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
There are a couple of different directions you could take this party idea.
If you’re setting up an adults-only event, take a look at Next Big Thing Productions and their 2024 St. Patrick’s Day Green Games. Their 21-and-over event included a range of wild games, including:
- Lucky Charms eating contest
- Chug relay race
- Flip-cup
- Beer pong
And that was just the tip of the iceberg! But if you’re expecting families, your Irish games could center on all-ages lawn games like cornhole, horseshoes, or a ring toss.
St. Patrick’s Day party ideas to showcase Irish culture
St. Patrick’s Day isn’t all about green beer and parades. Ireland has a rich and unique culture that lends itself perfectly to party themes and activities — whether it’s celebrating Irish food, dance, music, art, or anything in between.
To inspire you, here are a few of our favorites:
10. Céilí dances
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩
Irish dancing isn’t just for professionals. Learning céilí dancing is surprisingly accessible for people with a range of abilities. Hire traditional Irish musicians to accompany the festivities for an authentic touch. And don’t forget to provide some incredible catering experiences to round out the night.
You could even partner with a performer who can teach the dance, like McTeggart Irish Dancers, so everyone feels ready to go. If you treat it like a free trial class to get people interested, everyone gets to let loose without a steep cost. That can make this event appropriate for a wide range of audiences and event spaces.
11. Present Irish music
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩
Ireland has produced traditional Irish music and world-class contemporary acts: U2, The Cranberries, The Corrs, Westlife, Sinead O’Connor, and the list goes on. Host an Irish pop music disco, playing tracks by Irish artists and bands, or stick to the same theme for a karaoke night.
For a live music experience, bring together a lineup of bands specializing in traditional or contemporary Irish music.
If you’re looking for an event organizer nailing the brief, check out Granville Center for the Arts and its regular Irish Music Club. Each session is both a concert and a learning event — giving guests a chance to learn traditional Irish music, play instruments with each other, or simply just enjoy listening to a range of Irish and Celtic music.
All that singing and dancing will work up attendees’ appetites, so bring in vendors to offer food and beverages with an Irish theme.
12. Whiskey tasting
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩
For an exclusively adult event, hold an Irish whiskey tasting. Curate your own tasting flight of premium Irish whiskeys and introduce your attendees to new favorites. The ABV Barrel Shop in Arnold, Missouri, is offering up four Irish whiskeys for sampling on St. Patrick’s Day.
If you’re hosting an event in person, why not hire an Irish fiddler or piper to bring extra atmosphere? Just make sure you pair the whiskeys with traditional Irish food to give your event an extra little bite.
13. Celebrate Irish literature and poetry
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩
Celebrate Irish literature and poetry with an online reading or discussion event. The Emerald Isle has been home to some of the world’s most celebrated writers and poets, including James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and Seamus Heaney. Create a space where participants can dive deep into the works of these literary giants.
For a more interactive experience, encourage attendees to read their favorite Irish poems or passages from Irish novels. Provide some background information about the author and the context of the piece to facilitate a deeper understanding and appreciation. You can also invite an Irish literature scholar to provide expert commentary and insight into these works.
To make the event special, consider organizing a poetry contest where participants can submit their own poems inspired by Irish literature. The winners could receive digital certificates or even have their works featured on the event’s social media pages.
14. Celebrate Irish artists
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩
Irish painters, sculptors, and photographers have blazed new paths in their respective fields, including Irish-born painter Francis Bacon, photographer Michael Craig-Martin, and cubist painter Louis Le Brocquy.
Offer a tour that focuses on leading Irish artists at a local museum, or visit an online collection and see the world in a new way. Find sponsors for your art exhibition to make the event a success.
You could even offer a class teaching people to paint in the style of famous Irish painters like the Paul Nigra Center for Creative Arts did. Or lean into the versatility of art and decorate any space with prints of famous Irish paintings to instantly transform it into a St. Patrick’s Day gallery.
15. Stage a show with professional Irish dancers
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩
Host a dance recital featuring céilí dance demonstrations by traditional Irish dancers. Hiring Irish musicians to accompany the festivities will take your event to the next level.
This is the perfect opportunity to collaborate with local dance troupes. You could even take things to the next level and host a competition among professionals to add a bit of edge to your St Paddy’s Day celebration.
The Elkridge Furnace Inn even uses this format to let their attendees eat a full Irish dinner — that’d be a little trickier if they were dancing!
16. Learn some Irish
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩
The Irish language has roots that are lost in the mists of time but can be dated back to at least the 3rd or 4th century. It’s related to the Celtic languages of the ancient Gauls, as well as to modern-day Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Breton.
Introduce language lovers to the unique sounds and spellings of this venerable tongue. You might be surprised by how many Irish language academics would be open to sharing their knowledge online.
While there may not be many native speakers where you’re hosting your event, you can bring them in virtually to give your attendees the best possible experience. You could even focus the class on a theme, such as what people might say on St. Patrick’s Day.
Family-friendly St. Patrick’s Day party ideas
If you’re keen to host a family-friendly holiday event, St. Patrick’s Day presents a huge array of opportunities. It’s the perfect excuse to set up some craft stations, music workshops, and children’s activities to ensure that your festive event is appropriate for all ages.
Check out these family-friendly party ideas to get the creative juices flowing:
17. Set up green decorations and craft stations
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩
For a family-friendly event, organize a St. Patrick’s Day crafting workshop. This is the perfect way to inject some holiday spirit into your event.
If you’re looking for ideas for adults to get involved, you could have attendees create shamrock wreaths or St. Patrick’s Day hats. For children, you could help them create sock puppets themed around the day.
As just one example, the UK-based Waltham Forest Libraries hosts a St. Patrick’s Day card crafting event that offers creative fun for all ages.
To make the day even more special, provide green snacks and beverages. Green food coloring is an easy way to add a festive touch to snacks. You can even make them related to the crafts they’re making, such as hat-shaped cookies and even a purple shamrock salad!
18. Hold a cookie-decorating class
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩
This is a fun activity to stage either in person or virtually.
Bake Irish-inspired cookies shaped like shamrocks and tinged with green food coloring, pint glasses, and rainbows.
For an in-person class, arrange tables around your event space to ensure everybody’s got enough space to get creative.
If you’re going for a virtual or hybrid event, participants can pick up their cookies before the event. Then, they’ll gather virtually to decorate Shamrock cookies together. During the online Zoom session, everyone can learn how to bring the treats to life with colorful royal icing.
To make it even more special, you can forgo the shapes and make the cookies themed with traditional Irish recipes or unique takes like using mint extract. Teach your participants about the history of the food, and let them decorate them with a modern twist!
19. St. Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩
Adding a St. Patrick’s Day-themed scavenger hunt to your event is a great St. Patrick’s Day marketing idea. Give teams a list of green or Irish-themed items to take a photo of or bring back for the judges.
Teams receive points for each item found. Add more excitement and intrigue by creating clues on rainbow cards and having participants find a “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow. Make it challenging enough to keep attendees’ attention but easy enough for everyone to enjoy the fun.
When Triangle Treasure Hunts hosts its scavenger hunts, they even include to-go drinks for a “sip and stroll” experience. That means your guests can still get their green beer, and they could even have something refreshing at the end of the rainbow when they finish the hunt.
20. 5k or 10k St. Paddy’s fundraiser
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩
Get active this year with St. Patrick’s Day events focused on fitness. A 5k or 10k can serve as a celebratory fundraiser.
For example, the Tiffin-Seneca Economic Partnership used the proceeds from their 2024 St. Paddy’s Day 5K to support revitalization projects around Tiffin, Ohio. The event included a speedy leprechaun to add a fun, chasing element to the race.
The annual 5k was followed by an awards ceremony for the top runners, and Irish-themed costumes were encouraged. That’s one 5k we’d be willing to hit the starting line for.
St. Patrick’s Day activities for work
As much as we’d all like to drop what we’re doing every March 17, it’s going to fall on a weekday for the next few years. Bearing that in mind, you might end up getting stuck at work on St. Paddy’s Day — but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun!
Go green at work with these office-friendly St. Patrick’s Day party ideas:
21. Irish food potluck
Complexity: 🍀
Cost: 💰
Team engagement: 🤝🤝🤝🤝
Everybody loves a potluck — so why not theme an office potluck around St. Patrick’s Day?
Circulate or swap Irish recipes beforehand to inspire coworkers’ efforts, and then organize a vote to see whose dish is the office favorite.
Try to coordinate the types of dishes your coworkers are cooking up beforehand to make sure you don’t end up with 10 identical plates. Need some ideas? Anything featuring potatoes is always a winner, and there are loads of cabbage dishes to choose from.
But here are a few of our favorites:
- Shamrock cake
- Potato skins
- Roasted potatoes
- Cabbage quesadillas
- Beef brisket
- Brisket with cabbage wedge
Catering to a meat-free crowd? Draw inspiration from Farmer Dave Blume and his Rise Up Singing Veg. Potluck for St. Patrick’s Day, which encouraged guests to both wear green and eat green!
22. St. Patrick’s Day trivia session
Complexity: 🍀
Cost: 💰
Team engagement: 🤝🤝🤝🤝
Encourage everybody to put their tools down and take a break for an Irish-themed trivia session. This is easy to set up and organize, and it can be done in person in an office environment or remotely if people are working from home.
You’ve just got to dream up lots of questions about Ireland and Irish pop culture. To kick your trivia session up a notch, organize the office into teams and offer up an Irish-themed price for the winning team.
Want to use your St. Paddy’s Day work event to do a little good? Make it double as a fundraiser like Lancaster Medical Heritage Museum did for their recent Trivia Night Fundraiser. Just give your quiz an Irish spin, and make sure you let your guests know that their participation is helping to raise money for a worthy cause.
23. Irish cooking class
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰
Team engagement: 🧑🤝🧑🧑🤝🧑
With an Irish cooking class or dinner, attendees can learn a new skill and try something delicious. They can also learn how to prepare and serve classic dishes such as soda bread, colcannon, or traditional beef stew. If baking is more your thing, host an Irish scone-making class where participants can make their own sweet treats.
Just make sure you leave time for them to enjoy the fruits of their labors at the end. You can put on Irish music and tell stories about the Emerald Isle as you wait for things to cook or cool.
Virtual St. Patrick’s Day ideas
Life is busy, and we can’t always get together as often as we’d like. That’s why a virtual St. Patrick’s Day event is the perfect solution if you want to connect with loads of busy people to celebrate Irish culture.
Here are a few of our favorite online event ideas to get people in the festive spirit:
24. A virtual 5K race
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩
Moon Joggers hosts a virtual 5K race to raise money for charity. Guests can run, walk, and move at their own pace from anywhere in the world to raise money for causes like the National Hemophilia Foundation.
Irish cuisine offers a wide range of flavors and ingredients, so mix it up with adventurous dishes like black pudding and crubeens or showcase how to make a cheese such as Irish cheddar.
Unlike an in-person running event, attendees from all around the world can participate and move to their own fitness abilities without the pressure of in-person competition. Plus, you also have the scope for more entrees, as Moon Joggers proves, with 23,000 members in their Facebook group.
25. Online Irish-themed sketch event
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩
Looking for a way to introduce event attendees to Irish art? Try bringing remote attendees together online to sketch images of Ireland together.
This a great addition to an existing event series if you regularly host sketching get togethers like Evanston Made and their monthly Sketching at Sketchbook events. You’ve just got to give your event an Irish spin by focusing on celtic designs, traditional Irish symbols, or stunning landscapes.
If you host a creative online event, let participants interact by breaking out into groups for feedback and notes and then sharing their creations with others.
26. Virtual Irish whiskey masterclass
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩
Host a virtual Irish whiskey tasting by sending attendees samples in advance so everyone can taste them together during a video call. Alternatively, provide free access but ask attendees to purchase their own bottle of the brand you’re featuring so that everyone enjoys the experience together.
When Whisky Gourmet does their virtual tastings, they even take time to teach guests about the whiskey-making process so that attendees develop a holistic knowledge of Irish whiskey. This provides them with the exciting quality of an in-person experience, keeping attendees fully engaged in the virtual event, all from the comfort of their homes.
27. Q&A with an Irish-American bestseller
Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩
The Arts Guild at Neumann University is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day by organizing an author’s corner with Mark Builk, Irish-American author of Ambush at Central Park.
During the session, attendees have the chance to ask the author anything they want and explore the different interpretations of his dramatic book.
You can make this a virtual event by hosting livestream. And remember to always check your equipment thoroughly ahead of time to ensure your event runs smmothly. Make sure nothing’s downloading in the background (which could slow your internet connection), and clean all cameras with no-streak glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth right before you start the stream.
28. Host a virtual tour
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩
You don’t have to visit Ireland to learn more about the country on St. Patrick’s Day. Host a virtual tour of a museum or art gallery in Ireland. Or, partner with a local tour guide who can share videos and images of notable sites and landmarks virtually for your attendees.
Here’s an idea: When ThingsToDoDC hosted a virtual tour of Northern Ireland, all attendees received a recording of their experience. That meant that people who couldn’t see it live could replay it on their own time, and the ones who did attend live got something to remember it all with.
29. Create an online kids’ class
Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost: 💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩
Let kids learn about Irish history, culture, art, or music by hosting a class online. Make the class interactive to engage young attendees by playing games or doing crafts together. St. Albert Family Resource Center is hosting a virtual class that teaches kids about St. Patrick’s Day in a fun and creative way.
Make sure to have a good variety of things to do in your class. Singing, learning about history, solving puzzles, and learning vocabulary — or even some Irish — could all be great ways to make your class stand out.
How do you throw a good St. Patrick’s Day party?
Whether you want to take to the streets, venture into a local pub or bar, or rent a venue, a party is a great way to celebrate Irish culture.
When Tinna L. hosts St. Patrick’s Day parties, they make sure to include the attendees in the entertainment, even turning it into a singles’ party with stickers that match attendees’ interests so they can easily find their match.
Lean into the theme with St. Patrick’s Day decorations, as well as:
- Serving Irish food and beverages: There are loads of Irish dishes like corned beef to choose from — but you can also make a big impression with basic party food, green beer, and chocolate gold coins.
- Hiring an Irish band to play traditional and contemporary Irish music: For classical Irish, think bagpipe music or folk. But for a more modern take, try amazing music like Snow Patrol, Westlife, or The Wanted.
- Embrace the theme: Encouraging attendees to wear an Irish-inspired costume and offering an award for the best-dressed.
- Running a Shamrock bingo game: Make sure to include Irish images like the Irish flag or Irish countryside scenes to mark off when called out.
- Decor is your friend: Use “Pots of Gold” for table centerpieces along with pictures of shamrocks and leprechauns. Make sure to use plenty of gold glitter on top of your table runner, and it’s worth using a rainbow theme to guide your decorating.
This can all get expensive quickly, so make sure to use an event budget template.
Bonus: St. Patrick’s Day themes and origins
St. Patrick’s Day was predominantly a religious celebration until 1903 when it was announced as Ireland’s national holiday. Festive celebrations took hold in Ireland and beyond.
These days, the religious aspects of the holiday often take a backseat to public celebrations, parades, and festivals. Across the Irish Sea on the Emerald Isle itself, Dublin hosts its multi-day St. Patrick’s Day festival with four days of traditional performances and rabble-rousing in Temple Bar.
Aside from the parades, what are some traditions of St. Patrick’s Day?
Nearly 700 iconic sites across 66 countries turn green every year to participate in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening Initiative. It started in 2010 to encourage landmarks worldwide to illuminate in green for St. Patrick’s Day.
The Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland were the first to light up in honor of ancient Hibernia’s patron saint. Today, many U.S. landmarks participate as well; New York’s Empire State Building and the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign go green every St. Patrick’s Day.
How to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in your area
Irish immigrants held the earliest reported St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City and Boston in the late 19th century. These days, Americans celebrate Irish-American culture in a big way.
- New York: New York City hosts one of the world’s largest celebrations, with two million spectators gathering for the march up Fifth Avenue. There are no cars or floats — just dancers, bands, and bagpipers.
- Boston: More than half a million people gather in downtown Boston to watch dancers, bands, and bagpipers parade past.
- Chicago: Chicago dyes the Chicago River bright green every St. Patrick’s Day — an apt backdrop for the annual parade and some 800,000 revelers.
Other U.S. cities, including Savannah, Philadelphia, and Kansas City, are known for their large St. Patrick’s Day parades and celebrations that attract tens of thousands of green-clad attendees every March.
But the celebrations don’t stop there. There are amazing St Patrick’s Day parties and activities happening all over the US — and if you need a hand tracking them down, we’ve got you covered.
Eventbrite lets you search for the biggest and best Irish-themed events happening in your town, county, or state, so why not have a look?
If you’re a business looking for a way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, incorporate event ideas that celebrate culture.
Sláinte! Now you know how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is about celebrating Irish history and culture in your community, and you can do so in many creative ways. Consider what types of events appeal to your target audience, and offer a festive celebration this St. Patrick’s Day.
When you’re ready to plan and promote your event, it’ll help you use the number one search engine for people looking for events: Eventbrite. If you’re hosting an online event, you can integrate with Eventbrite’s virtual events platform, and if it’s in-person, you can advertise directly to people in your area looking for an event just like yours.
