THANKS to Pixie a gang of us had great viewing spots on the parade route yesterday, needless to say such a vantage point meant I took about 1,000 pics which will take me a good few days to sort through. In the meantime here’s a taster of some the pics, with more being uploaded to the St Patrick’s Festival group on Pixie as as when I finish them.

Hope you all had a great day, it was absolute bedlam in Dublin, crazy, I have never seen so many people hanging about the streets after a parade, mostly due to the wonderful weather I suppose. Anyway it is my intention to write more about the parade when I get a chance but for now here’s some images from the day.

Going to bend the rules here slightly, but, it’s St Patrick’s Day (in Oz already!) so that’s my excuse, and I’ll mention Dublin somewhere, promise!!

Attended the Paddy’s Day Parade here in Brisbane at the weekend, along with the younger brother and best mate. I was actually surprised by just how many people turned out (there were estimates of 30,000, which knocks the socks off London’s 10,000) and how good everything was. It was a nice balmy autumns day, temp hovering around the late 20′s and the sun shining and everyone out in shorts, not quite your typical Paddy’s day!!

There was a good mix of Aussie’s, Paddy’s and just about every other nation in the world around town to watch the parade too! St Patrick himself even turned up for the occasion, and in true Aussie style, traveled on the back of a ‘Ute’

But, just to remind us that we are Irish, and to ensure that we don’t miss home too much, about 10 minutes into the parade, the sky opened and the rain began! Now, being Irish we’re well used to rain, however, rain in Queensland is slightly different (warmer and a hell of a lot heavier) than anything we’re used to back in Ireland.

However, the bands marched on, and everyone continued to have a fantastic time. More photos below and at this link. Hope everyone, no matter what part of the world that they are in today has a fantastic day.

There’s certainly something for everyone in Dublin for this year’s St. Patrick’s Festival – even for parents who miss their clubbin’ days! I took my daughter to SS Michael and John in the West end of Temple Bar yesterday for her first rave party, where ‘the only drug is calpol,’ according to the group’s MySpace page. The Baby Rave is being put on by Belfast arts charity, Young at Art.

If you’re a parent of a child 0-4 years old, I would wholeheartedly recommend taking him/her/them to this multi-sensory experience. Even at five-and-a-half months old, my little girl was wide-eyed in wonder as she watched the colourful flower-shaped lights float up the walls and across the ceiling. The music was just the right volume to “thump,” but not so loud that I felt my little one’s ears were at risk. The staff were also very helpful, friendly, and sensitive.

The Baby Rave continues today and tomorrow. Be sure to visit the St. Patrick’s Festival site for details (CLICK HERE). You can pay the EUR 8.50 charge (per person) at the door like we did, but to guarantee your entrance, you’re better off booking in advance the day before. So book now for one of the three raves happening tomorrow. Given the wet weather Dublin seems to be getting, an indoor event such as this is sure to be very attractive for young families!

You have another opportunity to participate in a great show ‘Pearl’ in George’s Dock. It starts tomorrow at 7.30. Official Festival’s website requires (free) tickets for that show, but no one was checking them.

Take your children, they will love it.

If you can’t be in Dublin for the St Patrick’s festival parade and would like to be then don’t worry because RTE is going to stream all the fun live here. They will also, when available, stream other parades around the world live at this link. The largest St Patrick’s Day parade in the world has already taken place in Savannah with some 250k participants. Other parades will take place between now and Monday so if you want to check out the parade in other cities just make sure you check when it is happening (roll your mouse over the city to find out when).

You will also be able to check out parades from all over Ireland too including the Skyfest fireworks spectacular taking place in Cashel in Tipperary. Nice one RTE.

Meanwhile here’s a couple of different You Tube videos from last year’s parade.

EDIT: putting up the videos is making the whole site go mad, so I will just link to them instead GGRGRRRR. The first is from Balcony TV and the other isn’t   If anyone of the Dublin Blog people know where I am going wrong and can fix this, please do.

The BBC 5 day forecast today reaches to Monday (St Patrick’s Day) and tells us that the rain over the weekend should pass by Monday and there will be sunny spells with a max temp of 6C or 42F.

So the weather is expected to be dry but cold. If you are travelling to Dublin and plan to attend the parade make sure to pack a warm hat, scarf and gloves since you will probably be standing on the same spot along the route for 2 to 3 hours.

I hope that this year St. Patrick impersonator will be the same person that last year. I call him ‘de Niro’

This year, I will actually be away for Paddy’s Day but wanted to share things that I have learned from previous Paddy’s Days experiences:

• If going to the parade, I would suggest getting there about two hours before it starts if you don’t want to be trying to see around lots of people.  Take some warm beverage with you as well since it gets cold standing around for two hours.   If you are standing near the barricades for the parade, children and  adults will try to push their way in so they can see better.
• Dress in layers.  The weather is every changing here in Dublin.  You need the warmth when outside, but not inside. 
• Bring rain and sun gear.  You’ll probably need both.
• Face painting, dressing in all green, or other forms of costumes makes it more likely that your picture will be taken many times, maybe even published on a blog. 
• After watching the parade, duck into an out of the way little cafe for lunch.  Most places along the parade line will be packed but if you go off the parade line, you can frequently find a little place to eat. Or just go to the pub (also probably very busy) and get lunch there.
• Go to the pub!!!!  Our first Paddy’s Day, we ended up at Cafe En Sein because it is a nicer place and wasn’t packed full of people.  We were rewarded with a Ceili band.
• A lot of places will have traditional music during Paddy’s Day weekend.  Check them out.  Just duck into a pub or two to feel the atmosphere and then move onto another if you don’t like the one you’re in (Dublin has enough pubs that you are sure to find one you like)
• Just wander around and see what you see.  Many of the windows in Temple Bar are decorated for the Six Nations and Paddy’s Day.  Have a wander around and you just may learn something while being entertained. 

Other people have posted about the official events.  I would highly recommend the Ceili Mor in Earlsfort Terrace.  It was fun last year to see people jumping around and dancing to the songs, even if you don’t know how to dance, it is still good fun!

The ever-popular Porterhouse microbrewery and bar is currently holding its annual Stout Festival, nicely timed to coincide with the St. Patrick’s festivities. Their city centre bars on Nassau Street and Parliament Street, as well as Porterhouse North in Phibsboro, are all taking part, and full details can be found here.

The various Porterhouses will also be showing the final round of Six Nations matches, which includes England vs Ireland in Twickenham at 3pm. Not a bad way to get the party started!

With St Patrick’s Day (March 17th) coming closer and closer, the question is what on earth are you going to do over the five-day festival?

Whether you are from Dublin, living in Dublin or just coming for the craic there is bound to be something for everyone. Now an annual feature the funfair in Merrion Sq will run from Friday March 14th until Monday March 17th, there is a Babyrave in Temple Bar running from Friday till Sunday and the Ceili Mor will be held in Earlsfort Terrace on St Patrick’s Day itself.

But there is more, Kila play the Olympia on St Patrick’s Day, Mary Black is in the National Concert Hall. There are various Irish language and culture workshops and Irish language tours as well as speed dating As Gaeilge so brush up on your coupla focal.

You can find out lots lots more on the Festival website. You can book tickets for different events on the website though some things are already sold out. However don’t worry about not getting tickets for something you wanted, there will be something else to take its place. And let us not forget the stalwart of every St Patrick’s Day, the parade, two hours of fun and frolics and a long way away from the parade that used to happen when I first moved to Dublin 17 years ago. Then it was just groups of tourists with shamrock hats walking in formation waving, marching bands and being very very cold looking at the back of the people in front. Trust me it is a lot more fun now The festival map is located on the website at this link.

All of this is of course only a fraction of things that are taking place, different things will be happening all over the city and they will be hard to miss, just follow your nose.

Last year some of the Dublin Blog contributors were out and about taking pics and here is what we had to say last year. No doubt you can expect more of the same and probably even better this year. You can also see lots of images of St Patrick’s Day from all around the world on Flickr and don’t forget to keep an eye out over the festival on photographs as they are uploaded to our own Dublin Blog group on Flickr.