How to get the most from a St Patrick’s themed event

This year, St Patrick’s Day is on the 17th March and there’ll be plenty of folk out either on that night or over the weekend before looking to celebrate this Irish cultural spectacular, so although you’ve decided to put on an St Paddy’s Day event – have you nailed down how you’re going to do it? If not, here are a few ideas.

Skiddle is by far the largest guide to St Patrick’s Day events in the UK and each year we see similar trends. This is an opportunity often overlooked by many event promoters, however it’s one which a savvy promoter can really benefit from. Each year we have hundreds of thousands of people using Skiddle to find St Patrick’s Day events near them – get involved!

Preparing for a St Patrick’s Day event

If you don’t think anything else, you’re going to be thinking green. You can get some decent decorations for this for next to nothing, green streamers are an obvious place to start if you’re on a budget but risk making your event look a bit cheap. Best to get your lighting all greened up and ready – if you can get some gobos it might be worth thinking shamrocks, your attendees expectations are going to drive how far you can (or have to) push this. Just know your audience. Likewise, if games are right do them, if they’re not you can still get some audience participation with things you can throw into the crowd like green balloons and chocolate gold coins etc.

And if you don’t wear those silly, foam leprechaun hats, you’re really not getting into the mood of things!

Do people really drink Guinness on St Patrick’s Day?

OK you personally might think Guinness tastes pretty naff, but you can be sure that most of your attendees are going to want to give the black stout a go (even if they hate it).

According to the boffs at Guinness around 13 million pints of the stuff are drank on St Patrick’s Day alone. So make sure you get a decent slice of the action.

If you’ve got a younger crowd with less mature palettes, you might want to consider Guinness cocktails, these tend to go down well. Think Black ‘n Black (Guinness and Blackcurrant), Guinness Shandy, Trojan Horse (Guinness and Cola), Midnight Guinness (Guinness and Port), Black and Tan (Guinness and Lager), Black Maria (Guinness and Tia Maria)  and you might also want to serve the Black Velvet (Guinness and Champagne) but remember this is traditionally served at funerals!

And it’s not just Guinness – make sure the bar’s stocked with Ireland’s other alcoholic favourites including Irish whiskey, Bulmers Cider and Irish Cream.

Promoting your St Patrick’s Day Event

Bear in mind what’s happening around the venue. You might be able to generate interest based on other events taking place during the day, if you’re in Manchester for example, the biggest St Patrick’s Day parade in the world (taking place Sunday this year) surely represents a great opportunity to spread the word or just to help you soak up revelers that are already out for a party.

Skiddle’s St Patrick’s Day Guide is massive, covering events taking place all over the UK. Our guide will be used by hundreds of thousands of punters to plan their St Paddy’s, to get your St Patrick’s event listed on Skiddle with or without tickets all you visit the Promotion Centre.