Best St. Patrick's Day Events in the Country

While just over 20% of Massachusetts residents have Irish ancestry, Cape Cod boasts around 30% . So it’s no surprise that the Yarmouth St. Patrick’s parade, the biggest on Cape Cod, is a spectacular event.

Philly’s Erin Express is an extended bar crawl that takes place over two weekends around St. Patrick’s Day. The Erin Express runs free shuttle buses on a continuous loop to over 20 bars in the city.

Since 1842, New Haven has been hosting a St. Patrick’s parade that is the 6th oldest in the nation and is now the biggest spectator event in Connecticut, drawing a crowd of over 300,000 people.

In a decades-long tradition, the Chicago River runs emerald green once a year as the city hosts one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the country. Over 2 million people come out for the festivities, which feature floats, bagpipes, and Irish step dancing.

Vermont’s Mount Snow hosts a weekend-long festival for skiers that features a pot o’ gold scavenger hunt, live Irish music, discounted lift tickets, and a breakfast of “eggs and kegs” on Saturday morning.

Marching from Rock Island, Illinois, across the Mississippi River into Davenport, Iowa, the Quad Cities Grand parade is the only bi-state St. Patrick’s parade in the country and attracts tens of thousands of spectators every year.

At 98 feet long, the Hot Springs, Arkansas, St. Patrick’s parade route may be short, but it features the world’s largest inflatable leprechaun. The weekend-long festivities, which bring out 30,000 people yearly, also feature Irish Elvis impersonators and an Arkansas Blarney Stone kissing contest.

New Orleans loves a good parade, so it’s not surprising that the city hosts multiple parades as part of the biggest St. Patrick’s celebration in the country for the last 200 years. In addition to throwing beads in classic Mardi Gras fashion, float riders also throw potatoes and cabbages to the crowd.

Savannah’s biggest party every year is the St. Patrick’s Celebration on the River, which draws 400,000 people and features dyed-green fountains, live music all day, and hours of tailgating parties before one of the oldest St. Patrick’s parades in the country. Due to the absence of any open container laws, Savannah is a popular party destination.

New York City’s St. Patrick’s parade is not only the largest in the country, drawing 2 million spectators annually, it’s also the oldest. Established in 1762, the parade now lasts up to five hours and features more than 150,000 marchers and performers.

A city with a rich history of Irish immigration, Newport, Rhode Island, celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with traditional Irish elements like fife and drum corps, bagpipe marching bands, and historical reenactments.

Another hotspot of Irish immigration, mostly around the mid 1800s goldrush, San Francisco hosts the largest St. Patrick’s parade west of the Mississippi. Going on 168 years and drawing over 100,000 celebrants, the parade features floats, Irish dance troupes, marching bands, and Irish poetry.

San Antonio’s River Walk festival is not your average St. Patrick’s event. Instead of hosting a street parade, this city dyes its river green and hosts a floating procession of decorated boats carrying live bands and Irish dancers. There’s also a tater-tot eating contest.

Pittsburgh’s parade, established in 1869, is expected to be the second largest St. Patrick’s parade in the country this year, with 23,000 participants on the roster. With Pittsburgh’s population being about 14% Irish, that towering representation is not surprising.

Though it kicks off with a parade, Seattle’s weekend-long St. Patrick’s Day Festival is so much more than just a spectacle. It’s a complete cultural immersion, featuring Irish music, step dancing, jigs, visual arts, games, and even a marketplace selling Irish products. There are also Irish genealogy and language workshops.

That’s right, Buffalo, New York, holds two parades for St. Patrick’s Day, one on Saturday and a big one on Sunday. The first goes through the Old First Ward, a historic Irish immigrant neighborhood. The next day after Sunday mass, the big parade features Irish dancers, marching bands, and numerous local civic organizations.

Boston has the most Irish descendants–and Irish pubs–in the country. Attracting up to 1 million spectators annually, the city’s St. Patrick’s parade is the third largest in the country. Boston also hosts an Irish film festival and a days-long concert series in celebration of Irish heritage.

Called a “miniature Boston marathon,” — the course is only 6.2 miles — Holyoke’s St. Patrick’s Road Race turns into a block party once everyone has crossed the finish line. Around 7,000 runners and tens of thousands of spectators attend the event, after which the city holds a pageant, a JFK memorial Award dinner and, of course, a parade.

Kansas City, Missouri’s Snake Saturday celebration is named after the Irish myth of St. Patrick driving the snakes (actually the pagans) out of Ireland. Though there are no snakes, there is a charity cook-off, a weekend-long carnival, and a parade that draws 200,000 spectators.

The oldest and largest St. Patrick’s parade in Ohio, Cleveland’s parade attracts up to 500,000 people and always takes place on March 17, no matter what day of the week that is. Around 13,000 residents march in the parade, which features kilted bagpipe bands, Irish dancers, and even Irish wolfhounds.

St. Louis kicks off the St. Patrick’s Day festivities with a 5-mile run through downtown, with over 8,000 runners. Then there’s a huge parade that draws 250,000 spectators, and to top it all off, a formal “Meet the Irish” dinner at the Hilton.

Washington, D.C.’s Shamrock Fest, the largest St. Patrick’s Day festival in the country, is a five-stage event that features over 50 Irish bands along with Irish dancers, performers, and DJs. In addition to the live entertainment, there’s an Irish village, a carnival, and a parade down Constitution Avenue.

Starting with a half-marathon, then offering a shorter 2-mile “Shamrock Shuffle,” the city of Manchester, New Hampshire, celebrates St. Patrick’s season after most other cities have finished their festivities. Around 70,000 participants come out for one last parade, complete with bagpipe marching bands and fife and drum corps.