St Partick’s Day 2012 In Sydney, Melbourne, Perth

We at BBM love a good old St Paddy’s Day piss up, and seeing as loads of Australian’s are of Irish decent, they too like to go tits for St Guinness Day. Australia has been celebrating St Patrick’s Day since 1810 when Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, declared the date an official day of celebration for the Irish and those of Irish heritage and 200 years later the party is still going strong.

We’ve picked out some of our favourite ways for you to spend St Patrick’s Day wherever you are in the country. The biggest event on the St Paddy’s day calendar is without doubt the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Sydney. This year, the parade will take place on Sunday 18th March beginning at midday from outside the town hall with live entertainment from 10.30. As usual, the parade will be a whirl of amazing floats, marching bands and walking groups, as well as some awesome fancy dress costumes. The parade finishes at Hyde Park where celebrations will continue from 1pm in the form of stages with Irish music and dancing, Irish food stalls for your stew and soda bread, children’s areas and of course, a well-stocked bar. In the children’s area the kids can go wild with face painting, bouncy castles, clowns, animal rides and music performances.

Bridie O’Reilly’s in Melbourne will also be going the whole hog for Ireland’s patron saint. Open from 10am you can sit down to a hearty Irish breakfast complete with the obligatory pint of the black stuff, then chill out until the $2 garden BBQ gets going in the afternoon. If you’re still standing by the evening then make sure you catch The Keilli Kings playing from 10pm before Stand and Deliver take over until 3am. “Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling…”

If you’re over in Western Australia, Perth‘s favourite Irish pub, Rosy O’Grady’s, will be throwing their annual St Patrick’s Day party on Saturday 17th March. Somewhat of a Perth legend, the good people at Rosy’s host one hell of an all day street party with great food, plenty of Guinness and bad Irish jokes to keep you going all through the day and well into the night.

St Patrick’s Day Check List:

Ensure you have a pint of Guinness in one hand
Where something green, or failing that drink until you are green
If you’re not ginger, buy an offensive novelty ginger curly wig
Talk in a high-pitched way
Forget how to pronounce ‘th’ e.g. refer to ‘thirty’ as ‘turty’
Consume foods such as beef and potatoes
Dance like Michael Flatly
Make sure you drink for at least a period of 10 hours
Most importantly have fun