Ireland Awakens for St Patrick’s Festival!

Dúisigh Eire! Awaken Ireland!

…is the theme of this year’s festival, which is a call to Irish across the world to throw off the long, dark months and rise to embrace the brighter days ahead.

The National St. Patrick’s (Virtual) Festival takes place 12-17 March 2021. This year, the events are taking place an online TV channel at St Patrick’s Festival TV which launches on March 12 and runs for six days and nights. The channel will also be accessible across the globe on RTÉ’s cultural website RTE Culture

Dúisigh Eire! Awaken Ireland! promises to be a positive and uplifting celebration of our incredible people, our beautiful island, our community bonds, our young people, artists, creators and makers, and our diaspora across the world. Family fun and community spirit are, as always, at the heart of this year’s St. Patrick’s Festival.

We may not be able to celebrate in the usual way, but there is so much happening at this year’s St Patrick’s Festival – and not for the little ones! Here are some of the great events you can expect:

For the Little Ones:

A Handy History of IRELAND is a collection of funny interviews conducted by finger puppet caricatures, but not one for the history teachers! And The Street Sweeper is a short-film, for all the family, that investigates the daily routine of a not-so-ordinary street cleaner.

SPF Óg is a collection of events, performances, workshops and experiences for the young and the young at heart. From the comfort and warmth of your home, learn more about the masterpieces in the national collection whilst participating in yoga classes for children (and the whole family!) at Kids Yoga at National Gallery Ireland and encourage our young to start early while enjoying a mindfulness connection through art.

Belfast’s Tumble Circus presents The MacCarnyson is a hammer smashing Belfast inspired circus movie like no other, with big laughs and dead-on skill. The MacCarnyson’s features death defying aerialists, hardcore acrobats, mind bending jugglers and loads of craic.

Science at Home with Dr. Dan Nickström & Midlands Scienceor will be great for those who’ve ever wondered how electricity works or want to know more about the world of bees and pollinators. Or if they want to unleash their creative spirit

Animal Transformations with The Ark and Irish Arts Centre, New York will tell ancient tales of shapeshifting creatures and kids can create their own in this book-making video workshop with visual artist Duffy Mooney-Sheppard.

For the Teenagers

Teen Spirit with Bressie, is a spoken word piece by Niall Breslin that brings him back to his secondary school classroom. Sparked by the moment when he found out that one of his musical heroes, Kurt Cobain, had died by suicide, he talks about how the adults around him reacted to the news and the stigma that surrounded Kurt’s death and he asks himself, knowing what he knows now, what he would do differently today so he can show this generation of teenagers how they can be the ones to stop the stigma around mental health.

Ireland’s Young Filmmakers, For all film fans, check out  and the chance to enjoy five special 15-minute film collections showcasing the best short films made by young people from Ireland.

For the Grown Ups

Music: The Sounds Programme celebrates our best Irish musicians including performances from Pillow Queens, Gemma Dunleavy & Adam Mohamed performed in partnership with Guinness Storehouse.

Wellness: Those looking for a more chilled experience can tune into the Wellness Breathe and Move event.

Food: Sit back and enjoy A History of Irish Food five part mini-series, showcasing Ireland’s culinary history, and discover our journey from eating bacon and cabbage – to paninis, while also looking at modern Irish cuisine and what the future has in store for our taste buds.  There is also a fabulous food tour of Galway City!

Curious State are experts in creative intervention and they will take to the stage and street this year with quirky theatre and music for all the family, reclaiming public spaces with captivating antics and laughter.  For St. Patrick’s Festival 2021, the Waterford-based theatre and street spectacle company, brings us the What’s on the TellyBox? events. 

The Barceló Brothers are a vibrant young band formed by Galway brothers Séamus and Mícheál who along with their father Miquel perform an explosive mix of old and new Zydeco infused with R&B, Reggae, Soul, and Funk music. 

For us all

Since we cannot gather on the streets of Dublin for the St. Patrick’s Festival Parade this March 17th, we are reimagining how we bring to life the heart and soul of the national Parade, through spectacle, marching bands, pageantry and ceremony, inviting our audiences to participate virtually and enjoy safely from their homes until we can come together again. St. Patrick’s Festival has partnered with RTÉ this year to develop the #RTÉVirtualParade initiative, a fun and safe ‘at home’ parade alternative for all the nation to enjoy on March 17th. Keep your eyes peeled for more info about this coming soon.

While we look forward to a time when Ireland commences the journey towards reopening, and prepares to welcome the world to our beautiful, vibrant, island, this year St. Patrick’s Festival invites all our people of every age to celebrate from home, in support of the tireless work of our healthcare warriors and our frontline workers, who battle on every day to protect our people and lead us out of the pandemic. 

For a full line up of events and any information you might need to enjoy this year’s festival, you can find it all here:

St Patrick’s Festival 2021

The Team at Wasted.ie are delighted to help promote this years St Patrick’s Festival.

We feel that this year, we need it more than ever!