St Patrick's Day Parade

The National St. Patrick’s Day Parade really is the centre of the world on St. Patrick’s Day – a genuinely bucket-list worthy adventure in Ireland’s capital city, which lies at the heart of the global celebration of our Irish culture, heritage and people.

Join half a million spectators who gather each March to witness over 4,000 Parade participants including marching bands from all across the globe in a thunderous display of music and pageantry, extravagantly dressed performers, troupes of colourful, cascading dancers and a spectacular display of extravagant floats as they wind their way through the historic streets of Dublin.

With a bursting sense of raucous celebration firmly at its core, the Parade proudly showcases the spark of creativity, imagination, laughter and joy that our wonderful people are so widely known for.

Driven by the values of community, diversity and inclusion, joy and sustainability, the Festival continues to work with Ireland’s foremost creative pageant companies including Bui Bolg, Spraoi, Inishowen Carnival, The Outing Queer Arts Collective, and Artastic.

A fantastic new pageant has been commissioned featuring a collaboration between the St. Patrick’s Festival, Dublin City Council and the North East Inner City Initiative. With over 180 participants putting their best foot forward , the pageant will honour and celebrate the energy, resilience and talent that make up the community of the NEIC, shining a light of positivity on the Talent, Strength, Hope, Diversity and Joy in this community

Bui Bolg once again partners with Kia for an exciting new pageant exploring the link between Spréach, electric vehicle technology, and the circular economy; while the Olympic Federation of Ireland will look forward to Paris 2024, while also celebrating 100 years of Irish participation in the Olympic Games. With half a million spectators expected to line this year’s route, the Parade will feature 6 large scale pageants, 11 showpieces and 14 marching bands from across Ireland, North America and France and over 4,000 participants in what is shaping up to be the largest ever National St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

The theme of this year’s Festival and Parade is ‘Spréach’, the Irish word for Spark, which represents the unique essence of Ireland and of Irish People. It’s what sets us apart and what brings us together, and oftentimes it’s the reason that people from all over the world have a special place in their hearts for Irish people, place and culture.

The Festival has worked with pageant companies and partners to explore the different interpretations of Spréach – whether that’s the glint of craic in the eye that is so familiar to Irish people, or whether that’s the light of innovation and discovery so present throughout our history. Whether that’s the fire in our bellies, so evident in our sporting heritage, or about the flame of creativity that is so rightly celebrated throughout the world through our writers, poets, musicians, artists, actors and all our amazing creatives. Spréach is about celebrating that uniquely Irish spark of life.