Organised by Cork City Council, The Cork St. Patrick’s Festival will take place from March 15th to March 18th 2019, with over 50,000 visitors expected to attend the Cork St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday March 17th, celebrating the theme ‘Stories of Cork’.
Throughout the festival weekend, Cork will be a hive of activity with traditional Irish music from the Lee Sessions, exhibitions celebrating Irish culture, plus theatre, music, guided tours and talks.
The Cork St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be a vibrant carnival of colours, music, marching bands, amazing floats and community groups with up to 3,000 participants taking part, including some visiting from the USA.
The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Mick Finn said: ‘Is mór an onóir dom cuireadh a thabhairt díbh chuig ceiliúradh Féile Pádraig Chorcaí, go mbainfidh sibh go leor taitneamh as eachtraí na féile. It gives me great pleasure to invite you to join in Cork’s celebration of our national holiday. The 2019 Cork St. Patrick’s Festival celebrates the rich and diverse fabric of life in Cork, and reflects the great variety of people that now call our city home -we welcome Corkonians and visitors alike Leeside. The theme of this year’s celebration, ‘Stories of Cork’, invites local community organisations to express their Irishness and what it means to them. It also provides an opportunity for visitors to see why we are so proud of our city.’
Commissions by local arts organisations Cork Community Art Link and Dowtcha Puppets, plus national groups such as Spraoi, Buí Bolg and LuxE are in progress, creating innovative floats celebrating the theme.
Along with the entertaining flock of Cork Gulls created by Dowtcha Puppets, who have been working for weeks with local performing groups and St John’s College, a huge puppet of St. Patrick will accompany them on the route.
Cork Community Art Link will present a series of very “Cork” buildings who will roam the streets of Cork. There will be six floats of various sizes, each telling its own story through puppetry, performance and pop-up characters. These floats are being produced in conjunction with 11 local groups including Enable Ireland, The Brook Centre, Farranree Springboard, National Learning Network and Cork City Firebirds.
National arts organisations joining the parade in Cork include Waterford performance art group Spraoi, which will celebrate the origins of the word “langer” by unleashing a ‘langur monkey’ onto the street of Cork, while theatre performers from LuxE will tell the story of Sunniva, the Cork princess who became the patron saint of Western Norway.
Joining Corkonians from the United States for the Parade will also be marching bands from Indiana, North Dakota, Colorado and New York.
The parade will begin at 1pm on St. Patrick’s Day. Full details of parking, park and ride bus facilities and traffic restrictions will be available on www.corkstpatricksfestival.ie in advance of parade day. See Facebook @corkstpatricksfestival and Twitter @corkpaddysfest for updates and details of other activities to enjoy over the weekend.
Cork’s RedFM and the Evening Echo are Media Sponsors of The Cork St Patrick’s Festival 2019.
