St. Patrick's Festival, when are the best days?

pim

I am living in Dublin for less then a year now, (i'm dutch), and some friends of mine are thinking about coming over with the Saint Patricks day.. But because it's on a Tuesday, it's not very practical to come over for a few days, because they have to take a full week holiday then..

Should they come over tuestday the 17th? Or is it just as much fun to come over for the weekend(13-14-15) ?

And is the Parade on the 17'th for everybody, or mainly focussed on kids?

Dyr

tbh the whole festival thing is just a an excuse to stretch out paddys day to a week and milk some more money outta the tourists

John Mason

http://www.stpatricksfestival.ie/cms/events_parade.html

there is the list of activities for the week.

have a look at it and decide when would be best for your friends to come over

pim

I had a look there, but the website is outdated.. All the events are about 2008.

I just emailed them, and received this reply:

Thank you for your email! We have the 2009 website going live when the 2009 Festival Programme is launched – which just happens to be tonight.

Hopefully you can hang in there for another 24 hours.

CiaranC

St. Patricks Festival 2009 will run from Thursday 12th – Tuesday 17th March 2009. Might as well get them over for the weekend. Be warned though, Dublin gets very, very messy.

petethebrick

It's a great time for hopping around the different pubs, a fun atmosphere I reckon. On the day itself start at one end of town and drink to the other end. Great adventures guaranteed!
Some people are put off by the amount of tourists but meh - I like meeting all sorts of people. The parade itself is funny - it was something like 80% american marching bands last time i saw it. I don't know what it is about their uniforms and stupid smiley heads but they irritate me so much! I steer clear of this so then.

The weekend before st.patricks day should be good as I imagine most people will be off monday and so out and about. It's usually a good weekend for clubbing if you're into that sort of thing. Have fun^^^^

paulusdu

Pubs get unbelievably packed, im talking 25 mins to get a pint in the majority of City Centre pubs (and this is early in the day).

The Parade is good laugh, not just for kids, but most of it would be aimed at the younger audiance. Pick your spot well though, as it lasts a good while.

If i were you i would get your friends to come over from thursday/friday until the following wednesday probably, but im sure cheap flights might be at a premium on these days. There are usually lots of things to see and do (fireworks usually, unless its too windy).

People are right though, it gets very messy, i've avoided going out in dublin for Patricks day for the last 3 years, and headed west. A bit more relaxed. But thats just me and old age . . .. .

munchkin_utd

On Patricks day itself, the club Hurling and football finals are on in Croke Park.
So long as you don't have to catch every last minute of the Parade, you can catch a decent amount of the parade and the dodge over to Croker.
If your friends are into sport then its a good way to catch both football and hurling and see one of europe's biggest stadiums all at once.

arybvtcw0eolkf

munchkin_utd wrote: »

On Patricks day itself, the club Hurling and football finals are on in Croke Park.
So long as you don't have to catch every last minute of the Parade, you can catch a decent amount of the parade and the dodge over to Croker.
If your friends are into sport then its a good way to catch both football and hurling and see one of europe's biggest stadiums all at once.

Excellent idea.