Chicago dyes its river green. Sydney lights its landmarks green. Sacramento does neither, and still gets a full slate of St. Patrick’s Day events across the region, from Old Sacramento out to Placerville, Roseville, Davis, and Woodland. If you moved here in the last couple of years, the hard part is not finding something to do. It is telling the traditions that come back every year from the one-off events you will never see again.
Some background first, because the holiday is older than the parade. St. Patrick’s Day honors one of the patron saints of Ireland, a fifth-century missionary credited with bringing Christianity to the island. March 17 began as a religious observance and grew into a celebration of Irish culture and identity, mostly among people of Irish descent living outside Ireland. In the United States it shows up as public parades and festivals, green clothing, Irish dancing, Irish musicians, corned beef and cabbage, and a great deal of Irish beer and whiskey.
What follows is an annual guide, not a dated calendar. These are the events that return, so you can plan around them again next year. Confirm the current schedule with each organizer before you build a whole day on it.
WHAT THE BIG WEEKEND ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE
The largest local celebration is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival in Old Sacramento, a parade with Irish music and dancers that takes over the historic district. The party does not end when the parade does. Old Sacramento also runs a leprechaun hunt for kids through the month, and local restaurants and cafes put on a Taste of Ireland promotion with special Irish dishes and drinks. My one caution applies to everything in this post: the boardwalks and narrow streets slow to a crawl when the crowds land, so arrive early or plan to walk in.
THE RACE THAT STARTS AT THE BALLPARK
The other Sacramento tradition is the Shamrock’n Half Marathon, which starts at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. The morning includes a half marathon, a 10K, a 5K, and a half-mile Leprechaun Dash for kids. If you live near the park, expect an early and crowded start, and expect the streets on the route to be closed while the runners are out.
THE IRISH PUBS THAT CARRY THE DAY
Most of the actual celebrating happens in bars and restaurants, and the region has a real list of them.
- Sudwerk, Davis. Technically a German brewery and restaurant rather than an Irish bar, and it still throws a St. Patrick’s party with live Irish music, food specials, green beer, and Guinness on tap.
- Fox & Goose, downtown Sacramento. A British pub that does the holiday with traditional Irish music, bagpipes, and a group sing-along, plus Irish lamb stew and corned beef and cabbage.
- The Boxing Donkey, Roseville. A traditional Irish pub that puts on live music, green beer, and food and drink specials for the day.
- The Green Room, Placerville. A St. Paddy’s party with live music, a full bar, and pub bites. The O’Connell Street Band plays traditional Celtic and modern Irish tunes.
- Father Paddy’s, Woodland. A traditional Irish bar that turns the day into an all-day street bash with live bands, Irish beer, whiskey, shepherd’s pie, and corned beef and cabbage.
THE CULTURE SIDE, IF A PINT IS NOT THE POINT
There is more here than green beer. The Irish Social at the Limelight in East Sacramento fills an afternoon with Irish tunes, a pipe band, Irish dancing, and food and drink. Irish dance schools around the region put on performances for the holiday, and venues including the Mondavi Center in Davis and the Harris Center in Folsom have programmed traditional Irish music and dance. Bar crawls also form in midtown and downtown, and in past years they have started from places such as Sacrament Brewing, the Zebra Club, and Kbar Underground.
THE COMPARISON I REACH FOR, AND WHERE IT STOPS WORKING
The closest ordinary thing I can compare the day to is a county fair with better beer. One weekend, one crowd, everyone in a good mood, a long line for everything, and food you would not eat any other week of the year.
That gets you the mood exactly, and it stops working the moment you look at a map. This is not one fairground with one gate. It is a set of small events spread from West Sacramento to Placerville, and most of them are a bar or a restaurant doing what it already does, only louder and with a line out the door. Pick one town and you get a real evening. Try to cover three and you spend the holiday driving between them.
WHAT TO WEIGH BEFORE YOU COMMIT THE DAY
Here is the part an events list will not tell you.
- Parking is the whole problem. The parade and the race pull the same traffic. Go early, go on foot, or expect to pay for a space and still walk.
- March weather is still winter weather. A wet parade is a real possibility, and a lot of these events are outdoors.
- Green beer is a gimmick. Some kitchens take the food seriously and some just add food coloring to a lager. Read the menu rather than the color.
- Most of it is a bar night. If you want the music and the dancing without the drinking crowd, the Irish Social and the dance performances will suit you better than a pub crawl.
- These towns are not close together. Woodland, Placerville, Roseville, and Sacramento make up a region, not a neighborhood. Plan one stop and enjoy it.
If you are still working out which part of the region suits you, I keep every area writeup in one place at the neighborhoods hub, and the buying process page lays out the order things happen in.
Question for you: is St. Patrick’s Day on your calendar for the parade, the music, or the pint? The answer narrows down which town you should spend it in.
Adapted from St. Patrick’s Day Parades & Parties in the Greater Sacramento Region, originally published by Windermere Signature Properties at windermerecalocal.com.
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