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Raleigh St. Patrick's Day Parade & Festival
Raleigh St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival will be turning Downtown Raleigh green on Saturday, March 16th, 2019. This is the 37th year for the parade, which starts at 10 a.m. at Lane Street and Salisbury Street. It lasts an hour or hour and a half.
The Wearin’ ‘O the Green Festival starts when the parade ends, and takes place on City Plaza at the south end of Fayetteville Street in downtown, along with some of the neighboring streets. Enjoy live music and dancing, as well as shopping the vendor and craft booths. There will be kiddie rides and a bounce house on Leprechaun Lane.
How it all began:
The parade started in 1983 with a dozen or so enthusiastic Irish-Americans marching down Wilmington St. to the delight and curiosity of downtown residents, merchants and shoppers. The parade was organized initially by John McIntyre and Gail Massari. John and Gail kept the parade going and growing until 1988 when John was transferred to Germany. Prior to leaving for Germany they asked Raleigh's Friends of Ireland (FOI) organization to continue the work they started. The FOI board agreed to organize the parade. Frank Mellage became involved with the parade at that time. He served on the Parade committee from 1989-1992 and became Chairman of the committee for the 1993 St. Patrick's Day Parade. In 2000 an independent Raleigh Saint Patrick's Day Parade Committee was formed with members from other local Irish organizations.