Ireland's St Paddy's Day Goes Virtual

Usually, St Patrick's Day means parades, wearing green, and a lot of signing, dancing, and drinking. However, the festival is going virtual this year as Ireland continues to battle coronavirus.

The festival has been moved online bringing all the color, culture, and pageantry into homes around the world via&nbspSt. Patrick&rsquos Festival TV or SPF TV, a dedicated TV channel at www.stpatricksfestival.ie and accessible globally. 

Offering unique St Patrick&rsquos Day fun, SPF TV invites the world to take a front row seat over six days and nights at one of the great national cultural celebrations.

While few places worldwide will be able to gather outside or indoors as normal for St Patrick&rsquos Day, the reimagined festival, running from March 12 &ndash 17, will bring to life the heart and soul of Ireland&rsquos celebrations.

A rich and dynamic programme of events, created by hundreds of artists, musicians, performers, makers, creators, arts and live events workers and community organisations across Ireland will run on the online channel.

With music, theatre, art, performance, poetry, storytelling, traditional arts, tours, street and building lighting and art installations and much more, it will connect the family of 80 million people across the globe who claim Irish heritage.

In a statement, the festival management team said &ldquoWhile we cannot gather on the streets for the St Patrick&rsquos Festival Parade this 17 March, we are reimagining how we bring to life the heart and soul of the national parade, through spectacle, marching bands, pageantry, and ceremony, inviting our audiences to participate virtually and enjoy safely from their homes until we can come together again.&rdquo

The organisers also said they were partnering with Irish national broadcaster RTÉ in developing a virtual parade initiative to provide a fun and safe &lsquoat home&rsquo alternative for everyone to enjoy, and will be announcing further details on this over the coming weeks.

The latest on St Patrick&rsquos Festival 2021 can be found on www.stpatricksfestival.ie&nbspand you can follow it on social media via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.