Every March, Dublin turns green, the world turns its eyes to Ireland and hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets to celebrate. St Patrick’s Festival has grown from a single day parade into a five-day citywide celebration of Irish culture, creativity and community. Its world-famous parade attracts hundreds of thousands of viewers who are informed, entertained and inspired by what they see, while its citywide events bring diverse acts and communities together for meaningful experiences across Dublin.
Established by the Government in 1995, the festival has built nearly three decades of goodwill by sharing joy, spectacle and craic with audiences of every age and background. In 2026 alone it drew 605,000 attendees, generated an estimated €138 million in economic impact and supported 10,698 days of employment. Its marketing and PR campaigns reached 523 million people worldwide, with international coverage from Tourism Ireland alone accounting for 376 million of that figure.
In 2027 the festival returns bigger than ever, running from March 13th to 17th and culminating in the iconic parade on St Patrick’s Day. The programme spans more than 200 events across 10 locations citywide, bringing performances, games, treasure hunts, craic agus ceoil to the streets of Dublin.
A rare kind of reach
What sets St Patrick’s Festival apart from other sponsorship platforms is the breadth of its audience. Fáilte Ireland research from 2026 shows 57 per cent of attendees were local or domestic, while a striking proportion travelled specifically for the event: 36 per cent in adult groups and 13 per cent as solo travellers. Six in 10 were unconstrained adults under 45 and word of mouth is clearly working in the Festival’s favour: one in three attendees found out about it through online channels.
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On social media, the festival’s 2026 campaign delivered a combined reach of more than 2.4 million people across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn, layered on top of more than 14 million people reached by paid digital and social activity, 7.7 million in out-of-home advertising and further reach through radio, print and TV. Additionally, the PR campaign reached a combined audience of 118.5 million across broadcast, online and print outlets. It’s a media footprint few Irish events can match.
Opportunities across the programme
Rather than a one-size-fits-all package, St Patrick’s Festival offers brands a menu of entry points, each suited to different objectives. At the top sits the overarching festival partner, the flagship opportunity that places a brand at the heart of the Festival’s national campaign as “St Patrick’s Festival in association with…”, drawing on a marketing reach of more than 500 million from 2026, combining PR, TV, digital broadcasts (both domestic and international), digital display, programmatic, social, print, broadcast, outdoor and paid influencers. The parade itself offers an artistic float presence, a pre-parade activation along the route, or branding association, reaching the 500,000-plus who lined the route last year.
Beyond the parade, the citywide programme allows brands to sponsor a performance location, host a cultural event or back an artist across the 10 hubs that drew 65,000 attendees to more than 200 events in 2026, from the street party energy of Parliament Street to the food and big-stage draw in an exciting new city centre location. The Céilí Mór, the largest event of its kind on Irish soil and the ultimate parade after-party at Merrion Square, offers title sponsorship or a brand activation to an audience that reached 8,000 participants last year.
New for 2027, the St Patrick’s Festival Food Showcase offers title sponsorship or activation across food stalls, cooking demonstrations and entertainment, while the After Dark programme – which drew 7,000 attendees across 10 locations and three fire-performance sites in 2026 – offers sponsorship of a location or performance within its curated night-time offering.
For brands looking to align with authentic, grassroots impact, there is also scope to get involved in sustainability and community initiatives, from stand-alone artistic presentations to backing a community group or performance.
Why brands keep coming back
Kia Ireland has partnered with the festival for six consecutive years. Cathal Kealey, the brand’s head of marketing and PR, said the organisers responded to a short briefing process with a detailed activation plan built around Kia’s sustainability strategy – producing five cars for the parade and an on-site activation showcasing the use of recycled materials in its vehicles as part of its journey to carbon neutrality. “Overall, feedback from attendees was excellent and we were delighted with this partnership,” he said.
Sustainability now runs through every part of the festival’s operations, from production choices to community climate action, giving partners the chance to align not just with a cultural moment but with a demonstrable commitment to responsible event management – a value increasingly important to modern, engaged audiences.
Carol McCaghy, a marketing manager at Tayto, described the company’s partnership as “a tremendous success, showcasing exemplary teamwork and collaboration,” crediting the festival team’s understanding of Tayto’s brand vision and proactive communication for ensuring objectives were “not only met but well exceeded.”
And it isn’t only national brands that benefit. Laura Bergin, marketing and placemaking manager at Dundrum Town Centre, which became a satellite citywide location for the first time in 2026, said the collaboration “brought fantastic energy and cultural vibrancy to the destination, creating a really engaging experience for our visitors and the wider community”.
Previous partners include Guinness, PTSB, Aldi, Disney, TikTok, Dublin Airport and Tesco – evidence of the festival’s versatility as a platform for brand storytelling, whatever the objective.
Get involved in 2027
Every sponsorship is built around the brand, not a fixed template. Interested organisations can email bridget@stpatricksfestival.ie to begin a conversation, before an in-person or online meeting to shape a partnership tailored to their goals for 2027.
St Patrick’s Festival runs in Dublin from March 13th to 17th, 2027
