Of course there’s a St. Patrick’s Day celebration in a city as fun, carefree and lively as San Diego.
In fact, there are two, a parade on the Saturday prior to St. Paddy’s Day and a block party in the Gaslamp, both on Saturday, March 15. It’s a perfect tuneup to St. Patrick’s Dauy two days later at lively San Diego Irish bars.
SAN DIEGO ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE
There’s a huge parade that lasts for hours on 5th and 6th Avenues in Balboa Park. It starts at 10:30 a.m., and tens of thousands of people line up on both sides of the street. The savvy ones arrive well equipped for the event; they bring food and beverages. Red plastic cups are a big part of the scene.
It’s good to have beverages to put into those red cups because the parade itself is really kind of boring. If you didn’t know better you would think it’s a Memorial Day parade because at least half the entrants are police, fire and military. There are a couple of trucks with bands on them and they are in the back of the parade.
There’s plenty of spaces to walk up and see the parade at any time during the event.
In other words, there’s no reason to cut short your Friday night just to be there at the start of the parade.
The parade route starts at Fifth Avenue and Laurel St. and proceeds north up Fifth Avenue to Upas Street, over to Sixth Avenue and south on Sixth to Juniper.
THE BEER GARDEN
Adjacent to the parade route on 6th Ave., is a beer garden.
It holds a couple of thousand people. Beers are sold – you buy tickets to get your beers – and there are Irish bands. The beer garden is open at 10 a.m., but it’s not until about 12:30-1 that it gets busy. The footprint is so large that it never get shoulder-to-shoulder crowded, tho if your timing is off, you will have to wait 15 or so minutes to get into the event.
It’s great for meeting and mingling, with most of that taking place by the stages. There is plenty of room for dancing and a lot of people do it, cutting loose in good Irish St. Paddy’s Day tradition.
There are food booths – including one with what has to be the World’s Largest Pizza Slice, outside the beer garden area. Chips, water and sodas are sold in the beer garden for a buck. The event is free.
SHAMROCK GASLAMP BLOCK PARTY
In the Gaslamp, they roll out the green carpet (literally) for a block party called ShamROCK.
From 2-10 p.m., there’s three stages of music, beer and participating bars. The block party takes place on 5th & 6th avenues between Market & E Street. There are three stages with Irish bands, cover bands, DJs, Irish step dancers and fun games. Click here for the full lineup.
Tickets include discounts at participating bars. And of course you can’t get into the bars within the event’s footpring – such as The Field – without being at the block party.
Shamrock San Diego ticket prices are $39 for GA, $59 for the Premium Package and $89 for VIP, which includes 5 drinks at the Lucky Leprechaun VIP Pub Bar within shamROCK (redeemable all day/night) | $1 off all drinks at the Lucky Leprechaun VIP Bar, 16-oz ShamROCK stein, chips & curry small bites, among other things.
Website & Tickets: www.sandiegoshamrock.com
THE GASLAMP ST. PATRICK’S DAY IRISH BARS
The Gaslamp has some good Irish bars, The Field, Harry’s Pub and Blarney’s, all on Fifth Ave. Elsewhere there is McGregor’s in Mission Valley, Rosie O’Gradys in Normal Heights, Long Story Irish Pub in Ocean Beach, the Ould Soul on Adams Ave., and McP’s Irish Pub on Coronado.
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