This weekend, more than 70,000 people will descend upon Dublin, when it celebrates a landmark 25th year of the St. Patrick’s Day Festival.
The two-day celebration, which includes a pancake breakfast, parade, street fair and run/walk, is the second largest observance of the Irish holiday in the Bay Area, next to downtown San Francisco’s. While no local event can hold a candle to Dublin, Ireland’s celebration–drawing half a million people to a five-day festival–the Dublin, Calif. event continues to gain popularity year after year.
“It has grown so much,” said Lorri Polon, special events director for the city of Dublin. “The event continues to garner support from our community–from sponsorship and certainly from attendance. It started out as a very small, community event and has grown now into a full-scale signature event for the city.”
The festival began by a group of parents who wanted to put on a small event celebrating the holiday. But being that the city of Dublin shares its name with the capital of Ireland, it goes without saying that a celebration of the patron St. Patrick is appropriate and welcomed.
“We welcome that–to celebrate our heritage and our name and have an opportunity for people to come and see what a great community we have here in Dublin,” Polon said.
The celebration is so big in fact that the city, which funds, sponsors and hosts it, planning begins almost right after the previous festival.
“I do work on it almost year-round because it’s a passion,” Polon said. “The fact that the city is in such support of it, it’s certainly something that we’re thinking about all the time. I primarily focus on it about eight months of the year.”
And as the event attendance grows, so does the population of Dublin year after year. The city now has an estimated population of 50,000 residents.
Dublin resident Bill Burnham has been around for all the changes. The Dublin Lions club member, and its former president, has helped put together the annual Dublin Lions Club St. Patrick’s Day Parade for all of its 25 years.
“I got involved when the parade first started and just stayed with it,” Burnham said. “It’s been a lot of fun. We do it mainly for the kids.”
While Burnham said he isn’t Irish, some of the members share a genealogy that includes the Emerald Isle.
A wide variety of groups will be participating in the parade, from marching bands, elementary schools, dancers, civic organizations, bagpipe players, equestrian groups and clowns. The event begins at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
“This year we have over 70 entrants,” Burnham said. “We started 25 years ago with just 22, 23. Every year, it just gets bigger and better. In fact, this year we have just over 3,000 people in the parade.”
Other parade participants also include Mayor Janet Lockhart and the City Council, which Burnham said will ride in a fire truck, and dignitaries from Bray, Ireland, Dublin’s sister city.
The parade is returning to its original route, which is different from last year’s route. The parade will begin and end in the same place–on Amador Plaza Road by Safeway and will travel east on Dublin Boulevard, north on Village Parkway and west on Amador Valley Boulevard to Donahue Drive.
Guests who would like to view from bleachers can find seating on Amador Valley Boulevard between Oil Changers and Lucky Pizza.
But before the parade gets under way, many attend the annual Alameda County Firefighter’s Pancake Breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m. The breakfast will be held at Fire Station No. 16, which is different from last year’s event, according to Polon. The event, which serves up green pancakes, is a fundraiser for the Ann Ruch Burn Foundation. The fire station is located at the corner of Amador Valley Boulevard and Donohue Drive. The cost is $3 for children and $5 for adults.
On Sunday, the 10th annual Shamrock 5K Fun Run & Walk will get under way at 8:30 a.m. The 3.1-mile course starts and ends at the Dublin Civic Center. To participate on the day of, the cost is $25 to register, which includes an event T-shirt. Pre-registration can be completed online at www.active.com for $20.
Throughout the two-day festival, arts and crafts booths will be selling wares, some even with an Irish flavor. There will also be Irish music, carnival rides, international foods and drink. This year, the main stage will feature such entertainment as Black Irish, Golden Bough, Leperkhanz, Gabriel Duffin and CastleRock. And a separate stage will feature Irish dancers.
Both the festival and the parade are free to the public. Parking is located on downtown Dublin city streets, including Sierra Court, Sierra Lane and Clark Avenue for festival-goers. Those who take public transportation will exit the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station, head north and hop on a free shuttle–the Wheels No. 10 bus–which will take attendees to the parade site.
While the St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Pleasanton will be decidedly smaller than Dublin’s, revelers can party Irish-style around the local bar scene. The Hop Yard Alehouse & Grill, 3015-H Hopyard Road, will begin its celebration today, lasting through the holiday on Monday.
“We’re going to be celebrating for four days this year instead of one since St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Monday,” said Hop Yard owner Otis Nostrand.
Starting today, the brew pub will feature Irish food and brews.
“We feature some St. Patrick’s Day food and beer items primarily,” Nostrand said. “We’ve got corned beef and cabbage and we also do a great Irish lamb stew that seems to be a hit every year. We make it with Murphy’s Irish stout. That’s always something that goes quick.”
On the beer side, Hop Yard will be offering Irish beers such as Guinness, Harp, Murphy’s and Smithwicks. And while the restaurant won’t serve green beer, they’ll make it possible for customers to get the St. Patrick’s Day specialty.
“We don’t do green beer, but what we do every year is we have some green food dye that we will serve with the beer and if folks want to create their own green beer, we’re there to help,” he said.
To top it off, Irish music will be intertwined with the regular Top 40 tunes.
Main Street Brewery, located at 830 Main St., meanwhile, will offer live music from local rock band Public Eye, corned beef and cabbage and green beer on Monday.
And the newest pub in the local scene, Redcoats British Pub & Restaurant, located at 336 St. Mary St., will also be serving corned beef and cabbage on Monday, in addition to its regular European beer offerings and Guinness.
Perhaps the largest private party celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is at Kathleen and Bronco Hinek’s home in Kottinger Ranch Saturday. It started 10 years ago by the couple, who are both 100 percent Irish. After a decade, nearly 200 invited guests come to eat corned beef and cabbage sandwiches, Irish soda bread and likely Irish-inspired beverages.
Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Festival
WHO: city of DublinWHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
INFO: visit www.dublinstpats.com
*dogs are not allowed
