Limerick St Patrick's Festival and St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Limerick – St Patrick’s Festival 2024

Get ready for “A Different Kind of Energy” this weekend as festivities burst into life and colour on the spectacular that is Limerick St. Patrick’s Day parade!

This year’s parade will see visual artists Buí Bolg join Lumen Street Theatre, Limerick Youth Dance Company, the Hit Machine Drummers and hundreds of local participants!

Embrace the celebrations for our national holiday, and cheer on the vibrant displays of community culture, and of course, the craic that makes Limerick’s energy a true force to be reckoned with!

“Limerick: A Different Kind of Energy” is the captivating theme for this year’s Limerick St. Patrick’s Festival, set to electrify the Treaty County over the festival weekend in March. The theme encapsulates the city and county’s constant evolution, where past and present combine to generate Limerick’s unique energy. Learn more about the festival theme here.

The fun and craic associated with the Limerick St Patrick’s Festival makes a welcome return to the city streets from 17th to 19th March 2023. The Limerick St Patrick’s Festival will include the traditional St Patrick’s Day Parade on Friday 17th March, the Limerick International Band Championship taking place this year on Sunday 19th March and a host of other family-friendly events.

The theme of this year’s festival is “Discover Limerick”- and there is certainly plenty to discover across our city and county.

From Viking settlement to cosmopolitan city, a rich heritage and tradition is tightly woven into Limerick’s fabric.  The past is a constant and welcome presence here. From the 13th Century fortress at King John’s Castle, the Treaty Stone and imposing St. Mary’s Cathedral; to the collections of art and antiquities at the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum, the People’s Museum of Limerick, the Limerick City Gallery of Art and the elegant architecture of Georgian Limerick.

There are so many fascinating stories to uncover at megalithic Lough Gur, home to Ireland’s largest stone circle, in medieval Kilmallock, charming Adare, bustling Newcastle West or at Foynes, the birthplace of the world-famous Irish coffee.

Limerick’s culture is a source of justifiable pride, from our edgy street art and vibrant live music scene to a calendar bursting with theatre, film, festivals and events. Ireland’s first National City of Culture, we host the country’s only biennial of contemporary art, EVA International.

Limerick’s pride as a city of sport is evident at every turn and none more so than in our reigning three in a row, All-Ireland Senior Hurling Champions. Adare Manor is due to host the 2027 Ryder Cup and create memories that will sustain generations.

As the home of Munster Rugby, Limerick boasts the world renowned Thomond Park Stadium and the hotly anticipated International Rugby Experience. County Limerick is an adventure playground with Ballyhoura Mountain Bike Trails, Curraghchase Forest Park and Limerick Greenway, which carves a 40km path through lush local countryside, along with so many trails, loops, walks and hikes just waiting to be embraced.

There is so much to discover in Limerick.

St Patrick’s Day Parade 2024

Get ready for “A Different Kind of Energy” this weekend as festivities burst into life and colour on the spectacular that is Limerick St. Patrick’s Day parade!

This year’s parade will see visual artists Buí Bolg join Lumen Street Theatre, Limerick Youth Dance Company, the Hit Machine Drummers and hundreds of local participants!

Embrace the celebrations for our national holiday, and cheer on the vibrant displays of community culture, and of course, the craic that makes Limerick’s energy a true force to be reckoned with!

Look here for all event details – St Patrick’s Festival Limerick

St Patrick’s Festival – Limerick

Limerick St. Patrick’s Festival showcasing the best that the Treaty City has to offer! Limerick St Patrick’s Festival will feature a huge parade with more than 3,500 participants and the country’s only international band festival and encourages all participants to be creative about having pride in their city and a huge number of local, national and international groups will participate in a festival we can all be proud of! And on Sunday 19 March the International Band Championship will take place.

There is so much live entertainment to choose from including major parades, street theatre, live music, dance, horse racing, Strong Man challenge, sport….and much…

Among the participants in this year’s Parade will be Waterford-based Spraoí, an internationally renowned streets arts company who will be bringing their spectacular Stag Show to Limerick’s main thoroughfares on March 17th. Artastic, in collaboration with Spotlight Stage School, were last year’s overall winners and are coming together this year with another show-stopping spectacle.

Limerick St Patrick’s Festival Events

Parade will begin at 12.00 and will follow the route down through O’Connell St and passed the viewing stand which will be situated outside Penney’s.

Shamrock Street Shows and Music

Kick-start the Limerick St. Patrick’s Festival weekend with an afternoon of crowd-pleasing performances and traditional music for all!

From acrobats and stilt walkers to jugglers and circus acts, come see our wacky walkabout performers as they run amok, raising smiles on Bedford Row!

Toe-tapping is the theme on Thomas Street, where “The Green Stage” will be ready for local musicians to entertain, from modern music to traditional tunes.

The Limerick International Band Championship

The Limerick International Band Parade and Competition is expected to attract thousands of spectators on to the streets of Limerick city this weekend as the Limerick St Patrick’s festival gets underway!

More than 1,200 musicians from marching bands around Ireland, the USA, Germany, Africa and Northern Ireland will join Limerick’s finest to showcase their talents with adrenalin pumping music for all the family to enjoy this Sunday, March 19.