I love St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. My mom says I have enough Irish in me to justify wearing a “Kiss Me I’m Irish” button, but even if I didn’t have a small claim to the heritage, I’d be downing green beer somewhere.
The Raleigh St. Patrick’s Day Parade starts at noon Saturday. The route comes down Fayetteville Street toward the State Capitol, then works its wait toward Blount Street to Moore Square. But the parade won’t be the only downtown attraction on Saturday.
Moore Square will be filled with vendors selling Irish jewelry, trinkets, food and more. Parachuters will descend on Martin Street in front of Moore Square, where Irish dancers and bag pipers will also gather from 1:45 to 3:45 p.m. And you can even drink beer outside (always a plus) in designated areas!
Of course, there will be shenanigans at Raleigh’s Irish pubs including Napper Tandy’s, Tir Na Nog, Hibernian and others. If you know of any other Triangle-based St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, please feel free to share them in the comments section!
If you’re looking for some ways to get in the holiday spirit in the Triangle, here are some tips. As always please add any events I forgot to list in the comments section! Happy Holidays!
Get your Gingerbread on. Seriously, you would not believe how many opportunities you have to get your hands (or just your eyes) on some gingerbread in the Triangle:
Ride the Holiday Express Train at Pullen Park. The city park will be decked out in holiday lights. You can ride the train to Santa’s village from Dec. 10 and 13 and tell the big guy what you want for Christmas. There will be concessions, carousel rides and more. Parking gets bad, so consider riding the shuttle.
Go see the Raleigh Ringers, the internationally acclaimed community handbell choir is based right here in the Triangle. My mom saw them perform on PBS one year, and I’ve had to hear about them ever since. Truly, it is pretty incredible what they can do with handbells. Besides bells pretty much equal Christmas music, right?
Give a computer to a student who needs one. If you have any computer refurbishing skills, then volunteer at the Mini Geek-A-Thon on Dec. 12 at the Kramden Institute, a Durham nonprofit that helps connect hardworking, less-advantage students with computers.
Go see the Nutcracker. I was obsessed with the ballet when I was a little girl. I would love it if my boyfriend took me to see it this year. The Carolina Ballet performs the classic holiday ballet from Dec. 5 to 6 at Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill or Dec. 19 to 28 at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. You can also see it on Dec. 12 and 13 at Carolina Theatre in Durham.
If you’re open minded (and I hope you are if you’re reading my blog) then you absolutely should make plans to attend the N.C. PrideFest Parade on Saturday near Duke University’s East Campus.
It’s one of the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender events in surrounding states and it draws a colorful, welcoming crowd. The most recent year I could find stats for was 2006, when an estimated 6,000 people attended.
The march will begin on Campus Drive and turn right on West Main Street then travel west to Broad Street. It will turn right on Broad Street and proceed to Green Street and turn left. It will turn left on Ninth Street and turn left on West Main traveling back to Campus Drive.
The parade is part of a day long festival on Duke’s East campus. You’re guaranteed to see hilarious costumes, amazing drag, a lot of rainbow flags and more. Vendors and nonprofits have booths, so there’s plenty to see if you want to arrive early. (Photos courtesy of flickr user Weege).
I’ve only been to the parade once, and that was four years ago. So if you’ve been in recent years, let me know if you have any tips on best viewing areas or other events that day that shouldn’t be missed.
