Build-your-own St. Patrick’s Day: 2015 events

The Irish holiday cometh. Here are your celebration options!

March 13, 2015; 9:22 AM • by Susan Howson

Thus begins our 2015 St. Patrick’s Day Guide, which will, over the course of the next week, provide you with useful information and interesting context for this, the oddest of all national holidays!

Not Necessarily Boozy

St. Patrick’s Day Party at Carytown Cupcakes

Drink green craft beer, eat Irish cupcakes, such as Chocolate Potato, Guinness, Irish Coffee, and Irish Apple Oatmeal. If you wear green, you could win a dozen cupcakes! Oh, and while you’re doing all of this, you get to listen to live Irish music, courtesy of Bernard Farrell.

• Friday, March 13th • 5:00 – 8:00 PM
• Carytown Cupcakes, 3111 W. Cary Street
• Free to attend!

St. Paddy’s Palooza

Innsbrook’s St. Patrick’s Day festival includes everything one should include: music, Irish dancers, food, face-painting, a hot air balloon (!), and more.

• Saturday, March 15th • 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
• Innsbrook Pavilion, 4901 Lake Brook Drive
• Free!

Church Hill Irish Festival

The 30th anniversary of this tradition is upon us! Church Hill explodes with fun on this day, which is conveniently placed so as not to conflict with the beer-soaked bacchanals of the weekend before. There’s tons to do for families, there’s live music, there’s things to eat and buy and see, and it tends to grow a little more like an adult party later on. Could be a boozy hang if you so desire, but versatile enough that I’m putting it up in this section!

• Saturday, March 21st – Sunday, March 22nd • see site for schedule
• 25th and Broad Streets
• $5

Hill Topper 5K

A blessedly late (relatively speaking) footrace atop the city’s most bustling hill (that weekend, anyway). This 5K is an official part of the above Church Hill Irish Festival, but doesn’t HAVE to be, if you want to hit the pavement and then quit the pavement. Run off your indulgences from the day/week before, OR take a stand against those indulgences and just be healthy.

• Sunday, March 22nd • 9:00 AM
• Patrick Henry Park, 25th and Broad Streets
• $30 until March 17th, $35 thereafter

Probably Really Boozy

St. Patrick’s Day Party at Siné Irish Pub

Bands: Broken Monday, Teaze, TypeCast, Doc Grin. Alcohol: flowing. Responsibilities: just get home safely.

• Saturday, March 14th • 10:30 AM – 12:00 AM, rain or shine (heated tents!)
• Siné Irish Pub, 1327 E. Cary Street
• $5

2nd Annual Shockoe Fest St. Patrick’s Day Celebration

Back, triumphantly, for its second year! The Shockoe Fest was a big success back in 2014. This event has a kids area, Irish music and dancing, and free transportation!

• Saturday, March 14th • 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
• 17th Street Farmers Market, 100 N. 17th Street
• Free to attend! 

Southern Railway Taphouse’s 2nd Annual Patty O’Party

2014 was a big year for St. Patrick’s Day innovation in Richmond. Southern Railway Taphouse also brings back their popular event for round two. Bands include yacht rock favorites Three Sheets to the Wind, which is most likely the state of mind you will be in. Food and drink and dance!

• Saturday, March 14th • 12:00 PM – 9:00 PM
• Southern Railways Taphouse, 111 Virginia Street
• Free to attend!

Shamrock the Block

Shamrock the Block returns at its newish location on the Boulevard. This insanely packed funfest is not for the faint of heart (or the kind of heart that’s too proud to embarrass one’s self). StB even has its own app! Zounds!

• Saturday, March 14th • 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
• Head towards the northern end of Boulevard. You won’t miss it. And you may not even be able to get near it.
• Free to attend!

St. Patrick’s Day at Rare Olde Times

Perhaps the most beloved of all Irish establishments, Rare Olde Times opens at 11:00 AM on St. Patrick’s Day. If you’re the type to take the day off work and warmly celebrate Irish culture (maybe we should all be that type?), hang out at Rare Olde Times and listen to live music all day, feasting on Irish stew, shepherd’s pie, corned beef and cabbage, colcannon, fish and chips, etc. 

• Tuesday, March 17th • 11:00 AM
• Rare Olde Times, 10602 Patteron Avenue
• $6 (benefits Full Circle)

Photo by: Baylor University

March 13, 2015 9:22 AM 0