Mad hair days and prancing in the streets will help mark four days of St Patrick's weekend festivities in Dublin. The capital is the focal point of a €2.5 million festival which boasts street theatre, live music and fireworks among other free crowd-pleasing capers.
Apart from road diversion signs, the first clue to the spectacle that lies ahead will be visible this afternoon when Barcelona-based street theatre group, Osadia, hold the first of their three hair sculpturing extravaganzas. Members of the public are invited to have their crowning glory cut, coloured, glittered, glued and shaped into structures that would normally require planning permission.
The transformations take place opposite the Gaiety Theatre today and on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and at Merrion Square tomorrow from noon to 6 p.m. The festival splits tonight between a pay-per-ride funfair at Merrion Square from 6 p.m. and the AIB Glimmering event, a display of street theatre and fire-on-water pyrotechnics, along the Liffey at 8.45 p.m.
Tomorrow brings live music to eight temporary bandstands around the city from 11 a.m., including locations at Henry Street, the Mansion House and Powerscourt Shopping Centre.Full details of events, venues and times are available on www.stpatricksday.ie.