61% of consumers celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in 2023, so it’s no wonder event organizers want to throw an event at this time of year! 

But when events shoehorn in holiday themes without a sense of purpose, it can feel like a sham. Rocking your St. Patrick’s Day event means incorporating some event-specific ideas along with the traditions everyone loves.

And that requires some specialistic thinking…

Which we like to think we have after serving hundreds of thousands of creators from all around the world.  

Communities across the U.S. celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in many ways, including cultural events featuring Irish music and dance, parades welcoming thousands of revelers, and raucous bar crawls. Discover how to celebrate St Patrick’s Day with these event ideas to bring this celebration to your community.

Table of contents 

St Patrick’s Day’s themes and origins

How do you throw a good St Patrick’s Day party?

Activities for St Patrick’s Day in the US

26 St Patrick’s Day party ideas

St Patrick’s Day themes and origins

St. Patrick’s Day was predominantly a religious celebration until 1903, when it was announced as Ireland’s national holiday. Festive celebrations took hold in Ireland and beyond. 

These days, the religious aspects of the holiday often take a backseat to public celebrations, parades, and festivals. Across the Irish Sea on the Emerald Isle itself, Dublin hosts its multi-day St. Patrick’s Day festival with four days of traditional performances and rabble-rousing in Temple Bar.

Aside from the parades, what are some traditions of St. Patrick’s Day? Nearly 700 iconic sites across 66 countries turn green every year to participate in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening Initiative. It started in 2010 to encourage landmarks worldwide to illuminate in green for St. Patrick’s Day. 

The Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland were the first to light up in honor of ancient Hibernia’s patron saint. Today, many U.S. landmarks participate as well; New York’s Empire State Building and the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign go green every St. Patrick’s Day.

How do you throw a good St Patrick’s Day party?

You want your St. Patrick’s Day party to celebrate Irish culture and offer plenty of fun for revelers. Bringing in Irish musicians or performers and offering traditional Irish food and drink is a great way to make your party stand out. Check out this holiday event guide for inspiration for your St. Patrick’s Day party.

Activities for St Patrick’s Day in the US

Irish immigrants held the earliest reported St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City and Boston in the late 19th century. These days, Americans celebrate Irish-American culture in a big way.

New York City hosts one of the world’s largest celebrations, with two million spectators gathering for the march up Fifth Avenue. There are no cars or floats — just dancers, bands, and bagpipers. 

More than half a million people gather in downtown Boston to watch dancers, bands, and bagpipers parade past. Chicago dyes the Chicago River bright green every St. Patrick’s Day — an apt backdrop for the annual parade and some 800,000 revelers. 

Other U.S. cities, including Savannah, Philadelphia, and Kansas City, are known for their large St. Patrick’s Day parades and celebrations that attract tens of thousands of green-clad attendees every March.

If you’re a business looking for a way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, incorporate event ideas that celebrate culture.

26 St Patrick’s Day party ideas

People playing Irish music
Aisling Irish Community Center / Irish Session & Pop-Up Gaeltacht / NY

Celebrate Irish-American heritage in your community with these St. Patrick’s Day event ideas. For your convenience, we’ve given them ratings to let you know how complicated, expensive, and family-friendly these ideas can be. 

How we scored the ideas: An event with a difficulty of one 🍀 is easy to throw together on short notice, while an event with three or more might take months to plan.

In the same way, an event with one 💰 would be very inexpensive to put together — you might even be able to do it with items you already have. On the other hand, if it has five, you might have to spend hundreds of dollars to put it all together. (Worth it, though). 

Finally, an event with one 🎩 wouldn’t be very family-friendly at all — think an event that wouldn’t accept anyone under the legal drinking age. An event with five could be a huge hit with kids of all ages.

1. Get crafty

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩

For a family-friendly event, organize a St. Patrick’s Day crafting workshop. Have attendees create shamrock wreaths, St. Patrick’s Day hats, or sock puppets themed around the day. As just one example, the UK-based Waltham Forest Libraries is hosting a St. Patrick’s Day card crafting event that offers creative fun for all ages.

To make the day even more special, provide green snacks and beverages. You can even make them related to the crafts they’re making, such as hat-shaped cookies and even a purple shamrock salad!

2. Céilí dances

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

Irish dancing isn’t just for professionals. Learning céilí dancing is surprisingly accessible for people with a range of abilities. Hire traditional Irish musicians to accompany the festivities for an authentic touch. And don’t forget to provide some incredible food and beverage experiences to round out the night.

You could even partner with someone who can teach the dance, like McTeggart Irish Dancers, so everyone feels ready to go. If you treat it like a free trial class to get people interested, everyone gets to let loose without a steep cost. That can make this event appropriate for a wide range of audiences and event spaces.

3. Host an Irish poetry night

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

Ireland has produced some of the world’s best literature. Venerated writers like W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce all hail from Ireland, as do contemporary voices such as Seamus Heaney, Frank McCourt, and Rachael Hegarty. 

So hold a poetry reading in honor of their works. Serve Irish snacks and beverages to complement the readings for a cozy and cultural evening.

For a lighthearted and more interactive take on your Irish poetry night, host a limerick competition. Encourage everyone to enjoy the event’s spirit and the craic — but be sure to prep attendees if you expect the language to go south. Poetry can blend well with any space or group focused on togetherness, healing, socialization, or entertainment.

4. Present Irish music

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

Ireland has produced traditional Irish music and world-class contemporary acts: U2, The Cranberries, The Corrs, Westlife, Sinead O’Connor, and the list goes on. Host an Irish pop music disco, playing tracks by Irish artists and bands, or stick to the same theme for a karaoke night.

For a live music experience, bring together a lineup of bands specializing in traditional or contemporary Irish music. The Sanilac County Historic Village & Museum in Port Sanilac, Michigan, is hosting a St. Patrick’s Day concert with a local band playing classic Irish tunes. 

All that singing and dancing will work up attendees’ appetites, so bring in vendors to offer food and beverages with an Irish theme.

A person painting
Art Battle SF / Great Northern / San Francisco, CA

5. Celebrate Irish artists

Complexity: 🍀 🍀 🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩

Irish painters, sculptors, and photographers have blazed new paths in their respective fields, including Irish-born painter Francis Bacon, photographer Michael Craig-Martin, and cubist painter Louis Le Brocquy. 

Offer a tour that focuses on leading Irish artists at a local museum, or visit an online collection, and see the world in a new way. To make the event a success, find out how to get sponsors for your art exhibition.

You could even offer a class teaching people to paint in the style of famous Irish painters like the Paul Nigra Center for Creative Arts did. Or lean into the versatility of art and decorate any space with prints of famous Irish paintings to instantly transform it into a St. Patrick’s Day gallery.

6. Whiskey tasting

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩

For an exclusively adult event, hold an Irish whiskey tasting. Curate your own tasting flight of premium Irish whiskeys, and introduce your attendees to new favorites. The ABV Barrel Shop in Arnold, Missouri, is offering up four Irish whiskeys for sampling on St. Patrick’s Day. 

If you’re hosting an event in person, why not hire an Irish fiddler or piper to bring extra atmosphere? Just make sure you pair the whiskeys with traditional Irish food to give your event an extra little bite.

7. Screen an Irish movie (or two)

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

Keep things cultured with a film screening. Guests can buy drinks and snacks — green popcorn, anyone? — and enjoy classic Irish films. Our recommendations for feel-good films are “The Commitments,” “Once,” and “Killing Bono.” For something more historical and thematic, go with “The Wind that Shakes the Barley.”

Instead of popcorn and movie theater candy, consider serving some traditional Irish snacks like Keogh’s potato chips. If possible, you could even bring in someone involved in making the film, the way that the Aisling Irish Community Center has been able to have filmmakers visit when they screen their movies.

8. St Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩

Adding a St. Patrick’s Day-themed scavenger hunt to your event is a great St. Patrick’s Day marketing idea. Give teams a list of green or Irish-themed items to take a photo of or bring back for the judges. 

Teams receive points for each item found. Add more excitement and intrigue by creating clues on rainbow cards and having participants find a “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow. Make it challenging enough to keep attendees’ attention but easy enough for everyone to enjoy the fun.

When Triangle Treasure Hunts hosts its scavenger hunts, they even include to-go drinks for a “sip and stroll” experience. That means your guests can still get their green beer, and they could even have something refreshing at the end of the rainbow when they finish the hunt. 

People dancing outside
The Contour Group / Country Dance Party / Nashville, TN

9. Hold an Irish dancing demonstration

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩

Host a dance recital featuring céilí dance demonstrations by traditional Irish dancers. Hiring Irish musicians to accompany the festivities will take your event to the next level.

While getting attendees on their feet can be exciting, as recommended further up on this list, a demonstration can be just as fun. It’s also a lot more accessible for people of all ages and lets people socialize while they’re the entertainment. 

The Elkridge Furnace Inn even uses this format to let their attendees eat a full Irish dinner — that’d be a little trickier if they were dancing!

People cooking while one person watches
Cooking + Comedy / Get in the Kitchen! / Chicago, IL

10. Irish cooking class

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩

Offer attendees a new skill to learn and something delicious to try with an Irish cooking class or dinner. Teach them how to prepare and serve classic dishes such as soda bread, colcannon, or traditional beef stew. If baking is more your thing, host an Irish scone-making class where participants can make their own sweet treats.

Just make sure you leave time for them to enjoy the fruits of their labors at the end. You can put on Irish music and tell stories about the Emerald Isle as you wait for things to cook or cool. 

11. A 5k or 10k fundraiser

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩

Get active this year with St. Patrick’s Day events focused on fitness. A 5k or 10k can serve as a celebratory fundraiser. For example, Attic House 2nd and 3rd Year Clubs hosted a fundraiser for Cian’s Kennels. This event was a dog and owner’s walking challenge, with two distances to choose from: five or 10 kilometers. 

Registered participants received a branded bandana for their dog and were encouraged to dress in costume, show off their walking time, and share photos of their bandana-clad pets on the event’s official Facebook page. Prizes were awarded for the most creative dog and owner costumes.

12. Themed pop-up bar

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a themed pop-up bar. Transform any venue or attraction into a St. Patrick’s Day party and serve Irish-inspired craft cocktails. 

Consider partnering with local food trucks or restaurants that can offer some Irish fare. Public School House in Cottleville, Missouri, hosted a “Shamrocked” event complete with catered food and signature cocktails.

Just make sure to incorporate the theme into the party as much as possible. That could mean dyeing food and drinks green, playing Irish music, or even opening up a microphone so people can read their own limericks.

a girl with a cocktail looking at the camera
The Bloody Mary Festival / Brooklyn, NY

13. Music and cultural festival

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩

Showcase Irish culture and tradition with an Irish festival in your community. Partner with other local businesses to offer a well-rounded event featuring entertainment, food, and drink. Naptown Events in Annapolis, Maryland is hosting a Shamrock the Dock event that features live music, Irish dancing, bagpipe performances, and food and drink offerings.

To take it up a notch, try inviting musical groups, cooks, or cultural figures like writers or speakers from Ireland. That way, you can keep the traditions alive and well and build an even stronger connection between Ireland and your home.

Want to reach interested attendees in your area?

Pizza party guests laugh while enjoying pizza and beer

14. Plan a classic St Patrick’s Day party

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

Whether you want to take to the streets, venture into a local pub or bar, or rent a venue, a party is a great way to celebrate Irish culture. When The Portland Club hosts their St. Patrick’s Day parties, they make sure to include the attendees in the entertainment, teaching them a traditional Irish bar song that everyone is singing along to by the end.

Lean into the theme with St. Patrick’s Day decorations, as well as:

  • Serving Irish food and beverages
  • Hiring an Irish band to play traditional and contemporary Irish music
  • Encouraging attendees to wear an Irish-inspired costume and offering an award for the best dressed
  • Running a Shamrock bingo game with Irish images to mark off when called out
  • Using “Pots of Gold” for table centerpieces along with pictures of shamrocks and leprechauns

This can all get expensive quickly, so make sure to use this event budget template.

A person working at a bar
Cannonball Productions / Bacon & Beer Classic / SF, CA

15. Host a bar crawl

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩

Invite St. Patrick’s Day revelers to participate in a bar crawl in your area. Encourage local bars to participate, offering drink specials to anyone attending the crawl. 

Tickets can get party-goers into all participating bars at no charge, and you can even offer a t-shirt for participants to wear. Food coupons to nearby restaurants and giveaways can make your bar crawl even more enticing. 

Just make sure to partner with the local bars to let them know how many people are coming and when. You should also bring a photographer and videographer so everyone can remember their night out without worrying about taking selfies themselves, the way that PubCrawls.com does.

Parents and a child at a bar
Acme Feed + Seed / Acme’s 4th of July Rooftop Party / Nashville, TN

16. Make it a day party

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩

A day party will have less competition with other St. Patrick’s Day events in the evening hours. Plus, when you start your event earlier, it can carry on longer. Even more, you might want to host your event in conjunction with your community’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, which likely takes place during the day.

Hosting a daytime St. Patrick’s Day party allows you to tap into many ideas, whether you’re hosting a breakfast buffet, featuring traditional Irish fare, or giving revelers a spot to sit and watch the local parade. The Godfrey Hotel in Chicago offers bottomless drinks and a breakfast buffet, giving party-goers a festive way to kick off their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

17. Shamrock ball

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩

A Shamrock ball celebrates St. Patrick’s Day while raising money for a worthy cause. This cocktail or black-tie event can feature a plated dinner, drinks, and entertainment. Ticket sales can go toward a charity of your choice or host a silent auction to raise additional money.

If you’re hosting yours as a charity gala, consider including a raffle or sponsorships from local businesses. When talking with sponsors, emphasize the value of the cause you’re supporting and provide examples of how prominently you could feature their names and logos on your programs and other marketing materials.

18. A virtual 5K race 

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩

Moon Joggers hosts a virtual 5K race to raise money for charity. Guests can run, walk, and move at their own pace from anywhere in the world to raise money for causes like the National Hemophilia Foundation.

Irish cuisine offers a wide range of flavors and ingredients, so mix it up with adventurous dishes like black pudding and crubeens or showcase how to make a cheese such as Irish cheddar.

Unlike an in-person running event, attendees can participate from all around the world and move to their own fitness abilities without the pressure of in-person competition. Plus, you also have the scope for more entrees, as Moon Joggers proves with 23,000 members in their Facebook group.

19. A virtual introduction to Gaeilge

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

The Irish language has roots that are lost in the mists of time but can be dated back to at least the 3rd or 4th century. It’s related to the Celtic languages of the ancient Gauls, as well as to modern-day Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Breton. 

Introduce language lovers to the unique sounds and spellings of this venerable tongue. You might be surprised by how many Irish language academics would be open to sharing their knowledge online.

While there may not be many native speakers where you’re hosting your event, you can bring them in virtually to give your attendees the best possible experience. You could even focus the class on a theme, such as what people might say on St. Patrick’s Day.

A person sketching
The Sketchbook Journalist / New York City Urban Sketchers / New York, NY

20. An online Irish-themed sketch event

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩

The New York City Urban Sketchers regularly puts on sketch events designed to get participants to draw the places where they live and travel. To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, event attendees gathered online and sketched images of Ireland together. 

If you host a creative online event, let participants interact by breaking out into groups for feedback and notes and then sharing their creations with others.

21. Hold a cookie-decorating class

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩

Bake Irish-inspired cookies shaped like shamrocks, pint glasses, and rainbows. Participants can pick up their cookies before the event. Then, they’ll gather virtually to decorate cookies together. During the online Zoom session, everyone can learn how to bring the treats to life with colorful royal icing.

To make it even more special, you can forgo the shapes and make the cookies themed with traditional Irish recipes. Teach your participants about the history of the food, and let them decorate them with a modern twist! 

22. A virtual Irish whiskey masterclass

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩

Host a virtual Irish whiskey tasting by sending attendees samples in advance so everyone can taste them together during a video call. Alternatively, provide free access but ask attendees to purchase their own bottle of the brand you’re featuring so that everyone enjoys the experience together. Follow these tips for engaging virtual event attendees.

When Bourbon Women does their virtual tastings, they even mail their attendees unlabeled tasting kits, so they can go in truly blind along with everyone else. That can give them the exciting quality of an in-person experience, all from the comfort of their homes.

23. A Q&A with an Irish bestseller

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

London’s Brent Libraries capitalized on St. Patrick’s Day by hosting an online reading and a live Q&A with Carmel Harrington, an author from Co. Wexford. After hearing a passage from her novel, “My Pear-Shaped Life”, the audience was invited to share their experiences of St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland and overseas. The event gave people the opportunity to reminisce together, tell stories, and listen — a heartwarming way to celebrate Irish togetherness. 

Learn how to host a livestream with these tips, and remember to always check your equipment thoroughly ahead of time. Make sure nothing’s downloading in the background (which could slow your internet connection), and clean your camera with no-streak glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth right before you start the stream.

24. Host a virtual tour

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

You don’t have to visit Ireland to learn more about the country on St. Patrick’s Day. Host a virtual tour of a museum or art gallery in Ireland. Or, partner with a local tour guide who can share videos and images of notable sites and landmarks virtually for your attendees.

Here’s an idea: When ThingsToDoDC hosted a virtual tour of Northern Ireland, all attendees received a recording of their experience. That meant that people who couldn’t see it live could replay it on their own time, and the ones who did attend live got something to remember it all with.

A child using a computer

25. Create an online kids’ class

Complexity: 🍀🍀🍀
Cost:  💰💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩

Let kids learn about Irish history, culture, art, or music by hosting a class online. Make the class interactive to engage young attendees by playing games or doing crafts together. St. Albert Family Resource Center is hosting a virtual class that teaches kids about St. Patrick’s Day in a fun and creative way.

Make sure to have a good variety of things to do in your class. Singing, learning about history, solving puzzles, and learning vocabulary — or even some Irish — could all be great ways to make your class stand out.

26. Celebrate Irish literature and poetry

Complexity: 🍀🍀
Cost:  💰
Family-friendliness: 🎩🎩🎩

Celebrate Irish literature and poetry with an online reading or discussion event. The Emerald Isle has been home to some of the world’s most celebrated writers and poets, including James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and Seamus Heaney. Create a space where participants can dive deep into the works of these literary giants.

For a more interactive experience, encourage attendees to read their favorite Irish poems or passages from Irish novels. Provide some background information about the author and the context of the piece to facilitate a deeper understanding and appreciation. You can also invite an Irish literature scholar to provide expert commentary and insight into these works.

To make the event special, consider organizing a poetry contest where participants can submit their own poems inspired by Irish literature. The winners could receive digital certificates or even have their works featured on the event’s social media pages.

Sláinte! Now you know how to celebrate St Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day is about celebrating Irish history and culture in your community, and you can do so in many creative ways. Consider what types of events appeal to your target audience, and offer a festive celebration this St. Patrick’s Day. 

When you’re ready to plan and promote your event, it’ll help to use the number one search engine for people looking for events: Eventbrite. If you’re hosting an online event, you can integrate with Eventbrite’s virtual events platform, and if it’s in-person, you can advertise directly to people in your area looking for an event just like yours.