Get your shamrocks ready – Paddy Fest is returning to Tampa Bay. After two years of smashing success, the 3rd annual Paddy Fest is returning to Williams Park in downtown St. Pete with all the sights, sounds, and flavors of Ireland. Festivities take place this Saturday, March 15, 2025, from 11 am – 9 pm at 350 2nd Avenue North.
Tickets to Tampa Bay’s biggest St. Patrick’s Day celebration are $10, with a portion of the proceeds going directly to charity partner Ocean Aid 360. You can purchase in advance online or simply grab yours at the gate on event day. Children 13 and under enter for free, and dogs are welcome if leashed. The all-day shenanigans will be hosted and emceed by Irish musician Sean Patrick Walsh, live from the on-site jumbotron.
Paddy Fest is a celebration of all things Irish, 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, as well as St. Pete Irish Dance. The Main Event this year is live Leprechaun Wrestling with the Midget Wrestling All-Stars, taking place in front of the main stage from 6:30-8:30 pm (ringside tickets available here). Festival tickets includes general admission to Leprechaun Wrestling.
Family-friendly festival fun
Another attraction this year is the expanded Walker Wealth Kids’ Zone, which will fill the entire east side of the park with bounce houses, a 17.5-foot Gaga Ball pit, giant slides, and a 90 ft obstacle course, and much more. The Tampa Bay Rowdies will be on hand hyping their upcoming season at Al Lang Stadium, complete with mascots and a soccer area for the kids. Entry to the 7,500 square-foot Kids’ Zone is limited to kids 13 and under, with wristbands for all-day access available for $5.
For more family-friendly fun, check out the shepherd’s pie eating contest courtesy of US Foods. Think of a standard pie eating contest, but with traditional Irish shepherd’s pie – a pitcher of gravy included – broadcast on the jumbotron.
Also new this year is the 21+ Tullamore DEW Experience, where adults can enjoy a festive atmosphere in the park featuring a stage with live Irish music from Brendan Nolan, trickery from magician Cory Van Valin, proper pints of Guinness, complimentary Irish whiskey tastings from several brand partners and a private restroom trailer. The private VIP tent will have air conditioning provided by Mercury Heating & Air, as well as an Irish Coffee & Espresso Martini Hour, courtesy of Clonakilty Irish Whiskey & Minke Irish Vodka, made with local Kahwa coffee, of course
The 21+ Tullamore DEW Experience is sure to be a hot ticket this year. Entry to the exclusive adult playground is $10 and requires proof of age.
And if you can get enough of the tasty brown goodness, there will be a “Whiskey Row” providing samples all day from Natterjack, Teeling, Clonakilty, Keeper’s Heart and Shanky’s Whip. And to keep you going through it all, local favorite Kahwa Coffee will be giving away free coffee until 4 pm.
Paddy Fest will also be one of the first chances to try out an incredibly cool local concept: DryveBox, an innovative mobile golf simulator, brought on by perennial event sponsor, Modern Shore Insurance.
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 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 local biz
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 an Irish 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 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 whiskey 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.
“We’re really excited about this year, and have learned so much that we can’t wait to put on this event again. We’ve come a long way from the Block Parties at Courigan’s on Beach Drive back in the day to where we are now,” Boland said. “We’re humbled to have all the support from our community sponsors and local business community. We can’t wait to deliver for them and to really represent for our Irish heritage. Kat and I take this thing seriously and can’t wait to see everyone smiling in their green attire.”
In fact, Boland and Van Dora are going bigger than ever this year, as Mary Margaret’s is hosting its inaugural “Shamrock The Block Party” on Monday, March 17 in downtown St. Pete. The entire city block in front of the Irish pub (29 3rd Street North) will be shut down to traffic and transformed into a sprawling, free-to-attend St. Paddy’s party from 9 am – 3 am. Learn more here.
Paddy Fest St. Pete takes place from 11 am-9 pm on Saturday, March 15. Learn more and get tickets here. You can also pickup your ringside seats for leprechaun wrestling, access to the kids zone, and entry to the 21+ Tullamore DEW Experience on the event site here.
Co-sponsored by the City of St. Pete, Paddy Fest is made possible thanks to standout partners like Guinness, Tullamore Dew, Mary Margaret’s, Mercury Heating and Air, Modern Shore, Tampa Bay Rowdies, Walker Wealth Management, Kahwa Coffee, Crown Automotive, High Rise D9 Seltze
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