Doesn’t it get any greener? No matter what, there is always more. And that even at the already shamrock-colored St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Munich. The celebration of the Irish national day will be even more extensive in 2024, with more offerings, new protagonists and the largest parade to date in the Bavarian capital: 70 groups with 1,500 active participants have registered. Even the three-time ESC winner for Ireland, Johnny Logan, will appear. The organizers from the Munich Irish Network are expecting 40,000 onlookers, making the Munich St. Patrick parade the largest on the European mainland.
The new growth spurt of the festival, which started in 1996 with 1,000 visitors, is also thanks to the city of Munich. St. Patrick’s Day has “fans in the town hall,” said Third Mayor Verena Dietl on Friday at the program presentation in Kilian’s Pub behind the Frauenkirche. With a lot of voluntary commitment, the Irish community manages to get 40,000 people, big and small, to celebrate together in the streets. The city council approved new funding for this. Losses are to be offset with up to 95,000 euros per year. And the economics department also actively supports the parade, after all it brings a lot of people into the city, especially into the city center, said economics officer Clemens Baumgärtner, “that also has an economic benefit.” The city’s tourism department is helping with marketing and designing the new posters.
Derek McDonnell, chairman of the Munich Irish Network, gave the city “a huge thank you”: “We couldn’t do this without you,” and the new help means they can now act “more professionally.” And Paul Daly, landlord of Kilian’s Pub and urban Irish folk legend, added that it was only thanks to the financial injection that some bands were able to be invited directly from Ireland, including the young winners of the Irish Ceili Music Competition from Cork.
This is all on offer in Munich on the day of honor for Saint Patrick, which this time falls on Sunday, March 17th: Traditionally, celebrations take place in the city’s numerous pubs, but for the first time there is also “Paddy’s Pop-up Pub” (pronounce it should be fun after a few pints of Guinness): For three days, from March 15th to 17th, you can enjoy live music directly in the town hall, in the wine bar in the Ratskeller, among others The Monks Listen, eat typical local food and toast to St. Patrick.
Looking forward to the parade: Orla Geary (Parade Princess), Wolfgang Schramm (St. Patrick since 2015) and Siobhan Freidank (Grand Marshal).
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Because the party is actually based on a church holiday, a mass will also be celebrated: Father Niall Leahy will preach in St. Ludwig on Saturday, March 16th, 6 p.m. Of course there is music: the “Mass of St. Patrick” with the choir of the Pestalozzi High School, Irish musicians and a bagpipe player.
A pre-party starts on Saturday at 11 a.m. on Odeonsplatz. There are street food and beer stands and a stage with a cultural program, for example Augusta Ceili Band from Munich and professional dance groups perform. Many of the bands then play again on the actual day of the festival, on Sunday, then there is a second stage at the Reiterdenkmal on Ludwigstrasse. A lot of celebrities have been announced: not only Irish pop star Johnny Logan (who has often lived near Munich for years), but also Irish Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon and Ireland’s Ambassador Nicholas O’Brien. Meanwhile, the patron, Munich’s mayor Dieter Reiter, not only wants to talk, but also wants to express his heart for the green island musically as guest guitarist and singer of the Paul Daly Band (1:50 p.m.).
The highlight is the parade itself: from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the dance, minstrel, medieval and other groups – from Munich and Ireland, but also from Austria, Slovenia and Brazil – parade from Münchner Freiheit to Odeonsplatz: The bearded Bishop St .Patrick (again played by Wolfgang Schramm) is accompanied by four Irish wolfhounds and even real Irish police officers (whose biggest concern is apparently finding a pub where they can watch a rugby match). This time the parade princess is Orla Geary, a 19-year-old music student. Siobhan Freidank, who moved to Munich from Cork 40 years ago and who marched in the very first parade in 1996 as a standard bearer for the Rince Tir na Nog dance school, will lead the procession as Grand Marshal – the first woman in Munich’s St. Patrick’s Day history . This is almost a green revolution.