Best St. Patrick's Day parties
Break out the leprechaun hat and green beads. Here are just some of the country's best St. Patrick's Day parties.
Get our your leprechaun hat and green beads. Here are just some of the country's best St. Patrick's Day parties as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, party supply store Shindigz and Top Ten Reviews.
Get our your leprechaun hat and green beads. Here are just some of the country's best St. Patrick's Day parties as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, party supply store Shindigz and Top Ten Reviews.
Holyoke, Mass. -- Claiming to be the second largest in the U.S., this parade includes 25,000 official participants and more than 300,000 spectators. A notable Irish-American is chosen every year as the John F. Kennedy National Award recipient.
Hot Springs, Ark. -- This city's parade is one of the strangest since its inception in 2004. Recent participants include the Irish Elvises and the San Diego Chicken, among others. The route is just 98 feet long.
Kansas City, Mo. -- A Gaelic Mass starts the day, followed by the St. Patrick's Day parade led by the Lone Bagpiper (a.k.a. Jody Watson). Throughout the afternoon, the streets fill with floats, bands and other performers.
New Orleans -- The Big Easy hosts a Mardi Gras-esque parade, complete with floats and plenty of green beads.
Philadelphia -- This parade, started in 1771, sees more than 500,000 attendees ever year. Afterward, people spill into bars across town to continue celebrating.
San Francisco -- This city is the best place to celebrate the holiday on the West Coast. When the parade is done, pick any bar that suits you (bonus points for Irish pubs like Durty Nelly's and Blarney Stone, of course) and get your green beer on.
Savannah, Ga. -- The genteelest of genteel cities has been celebrating St. Patrick's since 1813 and likes to do it big, with an attendance exceeding 400,000. The three-hour parade goes through the Historic Park District, where you'll find fountains that have been dyed green.
Scranton, Pa. -- The city draws more than 150,000 attendees to its celebration, which is known as "Scranton's version of Mardi Gras." Festivities have been going strong since 1862.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- "The other" St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York certainly isn’t the largest, but can boast the largest celebration per-capita in the U.S. Be sure to see the "Green-on-Top" traffic light.
Washington, D.C. -- Lawmakers of every political party get into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day in the nation's capital. The Shamrock Festival at RFK Stadium and the city's parade are also big draws.
Dublin, Ohio -- This city celebrates its Irish heritage with a mile-long parade made up of approximately 100 floats, bands and bagpipers, not to mention the Grand Leprechaun.
New York City -- New York has the longest continuously running St. Patrick's Day parade in the U.S., started in 1762, and the largest with an estimated 2 million attendees.
Chicago -- This city has been dying the Chicago River green on St. Patrick's Day since the 1960s. The parade is a massive collection of Irish-inspired floats and dancers.
Boston -- The South Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade is the world's first recorded parade for the holiday, originally hosted in 1737 and drawing an estimated 850,000 people a year. Massachusetts is also the most Irish state in the country.
