The national St Patrick’s Day parade is an institution that brings colour, spectacle and pageantry to Dublin. There’s just one drawback: not everyone who attends can see what’s going on.
Now the not-for-profit organisation behind the event is promising that the parade will, literally, reach greater heights in 2025.
“We’re going for elevation this year. A lot of the floats will be a lot taller,” said St Patrick’s Festival chief executive Richard Tierney.
“Every year I say the parade is going to be bigger and better. This year, I’m saying it’s going to be higher.”
Although the “legendary adventurous spirit” of the Irish is the theme of the 2025 festival, when it comes to the parade, adaptability goes a long way. “We have a bit of a problem and it’s called the Luas,” said Mr Tierney.
Before the introduction of the red and green Luas lines in 2004, St Patrick’s Day floats regularly exceeded the level at which the tram system’s overhead power cables were placed. Since the 2005 parade, they have been subject to a 5.5m height restriction.
But floats can be taller for much of the parade if they use robotic technology to adjust their height to take account of the Luas cables at the points of the route where this is necessary.
The festival, which will hold its launch event in Dublin today, takes place over three days this year from Saturday, March 15th to Monday, March 17th, with the creative direction led by new artistic director Aoife Carry, formerly of Cirque du Soleil and Circa Contemporary Circus.
“The strategy this year is to really reanimate the city and bring activity back into the centre,” said Mr Tierney. “It’s poised to be a cracker.”
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The 2025 festival will have “six or seven” performance areas in locations ranging from St Stephen’s Green to the Hugh Lane Gallery. This succeeds the dedicated Festival Quarter at Collins Barracks, which was introduced in 2022 as a post-Covid “set space” but led to the feeling that the city centre was “a little bit quiet”.
Activities from free face-painting areas to a funfair at Custom House Quay and a Céilí Mór at Merrion Square will also help “sprinkle” the festival around the heart of the city.
“Dublin city has been through its trials and tribulations, they’re well documented. We have the opportunity to give Dublin a hug,” said Mr Tierney.
The festival, which is expected to attract 550,000 people over the three days, will see the return of some old favourites, including the treasure hunt, which will start the celebrations on Saturday at 10am.
Applications are already open, meanwhile, for the relaxed parade space, located at Bank of Ireland College Green. This made its debut last year as an area designed to support the needs of neurodivergent people and their families.
“It’s probably the most meaningful thing I’ve done in my career,” said Mr Tierney.
[ Celebrations from New York to Newbridge take place as people take to the streetsOpens in new window ]
When he first took up the St Patrick’s Festival role in mid-2022, he had “a fairly ambitious plan” to develop the festival commercially. This included boosting revenues via ticketed grandstand areas, though a bid to sell a premium range of merchandise has not yet proven a hit.
Amid the challenges of rising costs, the festival receives two-thirds of its funding from public sources — the Department of Culture, Fáilte Ireland and Dublin City Council — but with Kia and Dublin Zoo among its sponsors, and another big sponsor to be confirmed, it is aiming to increase its self-sufficiency.
“The thing I’ve learned about the St Patrick’s Festival is we need to mind it,” said Mr Tierney. “It’s bigger than all of us.”
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