Get your shamrocks ready – Paddy Fest is coming back into downtown St. Pete. After two years of smashing success, the 3rd annual Paddy Fest is returning to Williams Park with all the sights, sounds, and flavors of Ireland. Festivities take place on Saturday, March 15, 2025, from 11 am – 9 pm.
Tickets this year are $10 (though you can get them now at early-bird pricing for only $5), with a portion of the proceeds going directly to charity partner Ocean Aid 360. Children 13 and under enter for free, and dogs are welcome if leashed.
As St. Pete’s biggest St. Patrick’s Day festival, it is a spectacle that draws eyes from all over Tampa Bay, and organizers announced that a limited number of sponsorship opportunities are still available alongside returning partners Modern Shore Insurance, BreakThru Beverage, and JJ Taylor Distributors. Interested businesses can apply here.
Paddy Fest is a celebration of all things Celtic, complete with tons of Irish food (corned beef, anyone?), Irish whiskey and beer (helloooo, Guinness), and live Irish music, including multiple sets from the world champion Dunedin Pipe Band. The headline performance this year is live Leprechaun Wrestling with the Micro Wrestling All-Stars, taking place in front of the main stage from 6:30-8:30 pm.
Another attraction this year is the expanded Kids’ Zone, sponsored by Walker Wealth Management, which will fill the entire east side of the park with bounce houses, giant slides, and a 90 ft obstacle course, plus face painting and a few new additions for the wee ones. Entry to the 7500 square-foot Kids’ Zone is limited to kids 13 and under, with wristbands for all-day access available for $5.
Also new this year is the new Mary Margaret’s 21 & up Tent, where adults can enjoy a festive atmosphere in the park featuring a stage with live Irish music by Chad McDonald, trickery from magician Cory Van Valin, proper pints of Guinness, complimentary Irish whiskey tastings from several brand partners and a private restroom trailer. Entry to this exclusive adult playground is $10 and requires proof of age.
Get a taste o’ Ireland at Paddy Fest
Ready for Irish culinary delights? This year’s rendition will be jam-packed with deliciousness thanks to our local stars in the industry.
There will be a must-visit Irish food tent featuring slow-cooked corned beef and cabbage and other traditional St. Patrick’s Day favorites, hosted in partnership with Chef Melanie Rattanachane’s expert event caterers, Fresh Factory. Additionally, top notch local food trucks like LaStrada Mobile Kitchen, Galvin’s Goodies, & Pamz Pizza Conez are back again to feed the green clad revelers.
When you’re ready to wash it all down, full liquor bars with plenty o’ Guinness and Tullamore DEW Irish Whiskey will be scattered throughout the park.
Paddy Fest showcases the best of St. Pete
This annual event is a prime example of what a great event in Williams Park can look like, taking over the entire city block in downtown and showcasing the best of what the entire city and region have to offer. It was due to that past success that organizers decided to make Paddy Fest even bigger this year. With thousands of attendees expected at the sprawling festival, Paddy Fest 2025 will be one of the biggest St. Patrick’s Day festivals in the Tampa Bay Region’s history.
Live music and dance performances will take the stage all day every day, complete with a lawn for dancing, singing, picnicking, and relaxing.
Drink green beer for charity
This massive festival in the park is a joint effort between the City of St. Pete and the local team behind St. Patrick’s Day staples Mary Margaret’s Irish Pub and The Galley. It’s the same group that put on Tampa Bay’s biggest World Cup watch parties at Williams Park and Jannus Live at the end of 2022, which proved to be a fantastic experience.
Of course, while Paddy Fest is primarily a Celtic celebration, it’s also an opportunity to support an incredible local cause. Proceeds from the event will benefit Ocean Aid 360, a St. Pete-based non-profit focused on marine habitat restoration. More than $20K was raised for Ocean Aid 360 through last year’s Paddy fest and the World Cup watch parties, and organizers look forward to making yet another meaningful donation after the festival.
St. Paddy’s Festival celebrates all things local
One of the best facets of the festival, of course, is the emphasis on supporting local artists and businesses. Many of our favorite St. Pete food trucks will be on hand, and celebrated local chef Melanie Rattanachane from Fresh Factory will be leading the way in creating and serving authentic Irish dishes.
The deep roster of food trucks offers something for any palate, and there will also be local makers and artists showcasing their goods in the vendor market, including an all-Irish portion of the market. 
There’s even a big local tie in the organization of the event itself. For the third year in a row, Paddy Fest is largely being organized by Pete Boland and Kat Van Dora, a pair of born-and-raised locals who have spent more than a decade together throwing parties full of green beer and Jameson shots. The duo runs Mary Margaret’s Irish Pub together, and they got their start in the industry when the two began working at Courigan’s Irish Pub back in 2009, making this their 16th-straight St. Patrick’s party to throw for St. Pete.
“It’s nice to come full circle here,” Boland said. St. Patrick’s is a special day for us, and we’re thrilled to do something on this level for the city we love on our favorite holiday.”
Paddy Fest St. Pete takes place from 11 am-9 pm on Saturday, March 15. Learn more and get tickets here. Early-bird admission is currently available for only $5.
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