St. Patrick’s Day 2012
Rain or shine, San Francisco knows how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (and the Friday before) with a good and cheap variety of block parties, pub crawls, festivals and parades .
Here’s a few of our favorite 2012 St. Patrick’s Day themed events in San Francisco and the Bay Area. So wear plenty of green (even though, at one time, the color associated with Saint Patrick was actually blue) and party hard.
Live St. Patrick’s Day Bagpipe Serenade & Party
Saturday, March 17 – All Day (FREE)
Farley’s Coffee celebrates its 23rd anniversary with a bag pipe serenade in the morning and Irish music throughout the day. Farley’s (1315 18th St — Potrero Hill)
St. Patrick’s Weekend Pub Crawl
March 16-18 ($5 per day, $10 for 3-day pass)
Bar hop your way through the Marina and Cow Hollow with three days of St. Patrick’s Day themed pub crawl featuring drink specials like $1 beers, $3 cocktails and $4 Jameson shots to get you shamrocking.
2012 St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival
Saturday, March 17 (FREE)
Attracting some 100,000 revelers, the 161st St Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival is one of the city’s most popular events. Well over a hundred colorful floats, Irish dance troupes and marching bands capped off by a huge Irish Festival in front of City Hall. | Festival: 10a-5p | Parade: 11:30am
City of Dublin 2012 St. Patrick’s Day Celebration
Sat. & Sun, March 17, 18 – 10a-5p (FREE)
The City of Dublin in California tries to live up to its namesake in Ireland with a two-day festival featuring roaming leprechauns, a parade, tons of Irish food, three stages of Irish live music and dancing. | Dublin Civic Center (100 Civic Plaza — Dublin)
St. Patrick’s Day Block Party
Friday, March 16 – 3pm ’til late (FREE)
The Royal Exchange (301 Sacramento) will shut down Front Street from Sacramento to California and throw a giant impromptu beer garden. The street shuts down around 3pm and live music begins around 5pm. Royal Exchange has 32 different beers on tap including Guinness, Harp, Smithwick’s.
Cafe Prague Block Party
– Friday, March 16 – 4pm (FREE)
Party with the Czech’s in Merchant Alley in the Financial District with $8 pitchers, Irish pub grub and $1 beers for the first 100 people to RSVP.
Aventine St. Patrick’s Day Alley Block Party
– Friday, March 16 – 5pm (FREE)
Get drunk with about 1,500 people as Aventine hosts their fourth annual St. Patrick’s Day Alley block party in the financial district. There’s a DJ, live band, food truck and four remote bars (serving Guinness, Harp, Jameson shots and more) to get you nice and toasty | Hotaling Street (btwn Washington/Jackson and Montgomery/Sansome)
LepreCon: Tenderloin St. Patty’s Bar Crawl
– Friday, March 16 – 6:30p to Mid (FREE)
Wear something obnoxiously green at this St. Patty’s themed pub crawl of non-traditional drinking locales all over the colorful tenderloin
O’Reilly’s St. Patrick’s Day Block Party
– Saturday, March 17 – 1pm to 10pm ($10)
Annual North Beach block party on Green Street with live music, live performance from The Whelan Academy of Irish Dance. Green Street (btwn Columbus and Powell) – North Beach, SF
Irish Bank St. Patrick’s Day Block Party
Saturday, March 17 – Noon to Midnight (FREE before Noon, $5 after)
A full day block party beginning at noon live celtic rock, Irish reggae and DJs all the way to midnight. | 10 Mark Lane (Bush Street btwn Grant and Kearny)
Free Cab Rides Home on St. Patrick’s Day
Saturday, March 17 – 3pm to 3am (FREE)
St. Patrick’s day revelers in Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco can get their cab rides home paid for throughout the night of March 17, 2021 as Alameda law firm Berg Injury Lawyers once again is sponsoring the “Safe and Sober Free Cab Ride Home” program
AAA Tipsy Tow Home
Saturday, March 17 – 6pm to 6am (FREE)
AAA’s Tipsy Tow Program offers a free tow for drinking drivers in Northern California – members and non-members – from 6pm on St. Patrick’s Day until 6am the next morning, in Northern California, Nevada and Utah.
