By: Denise Foley

There’s a parade this weekend in Philly. There’ll be music, dancing girls, and more green than they see at the Mint in a year. And the best part of all—everybody there is your friend.

Philly’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is a lot like those hometown events where the bands and floats are interspersed with kids riding bikes with streamers on them. Okay, there are no kids on bikes (there will be a women’s rollerblade team and they dress pretty funky), but it has a small town feel even when you see it marching from Broad Street to the Parkway. People are laughing, cheering, singing and dancing and—hold on to your hats—actually chatting with complete strangers. Last year, I talked to two guys who were sharing a beer together outside Tir na Nog. When I asked them how long they’d known each other, they looked at one another. “Oh,” said one, “I think about 20 minutes.” It kinda goes like that.

The shenanigans start on Friday night, March 7: 

• Celtic beer tasting at the Washington House restaurant in Sellersville
• The Hothouse Flowers at World Café Live
• Phil Coulter and the Irish Pops Orchestra at the Keswick in Glenside
• The Chieftains at Princeton’s McCarter Theater
• Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones at the Irish Center
• Irish Beef and Beer Night with Celtic Spirit at The Arts Scene in West Chester

Then, on Saturday:

The Erin Express leaves the station. Eight busses will be available to take revelers from one Irish pub to another. No driving, no cost, no need for the family to see a bail bondsman to spring you from jail after your drunk driving arrest. If you do drink too much, stay in town. That’s what credit cards are for.  Here are the participating saloons:

• Mill Creek Tavern, 42nd & Chester 
• Smokey Joe's, 40th & Walnut 
• The Blarney Stone , 3929 Sansom Street 
• O'Hara's Fish House, 39th & Chestnut 
• Cavanuagh's, 39th & Sansom 
• Bridgewater Pub, 30th Street Station 
• Mace's Crossing, 17th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway
• Green Room,1940 Green Street
• Kelliann's, 16th & Spring Garden 
• Parkway Bar & Grille, 22nd & Spring Garden 
• Westy's, 1440 Callowhill Street 
• T.A. Flannery's, 11 South 21st Street
• Bonner's Irish Pub, 23rd & Sansom 
• Callahan's Grille, 26th & South
• Tom Hagan's Tavern, 20th & Arch

Teetotaller? Here’s some fun events on Saturday for you too:

• Grainne Hambly and William Jackson, masters of the Celtic Harp, at the Cultural Center of Chester County
• Mick Moloney at the Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in Elmer, NJ
• Jamison at the Dover Elks Lodge in Dover, DE

And on Sunday? The parade! It starts at 11AM (and we don’t mean 11 Irish time) at Broad and Washington Streets and heads down to the reviewing stands on the Parkway, near the Irish flag. And afterwards, you could just go home and look at your digital pictures, or you could go to one of the post parade parties (at Slainte, New Deck Tavern, the Irish Center, or the Kensington String Band HQ, where they’ll have the tireless Jamison and a group of Irish dancers).

But that’s not all. If you have the energy, you can see:

• The Irish Rovers at the Grand Opera House in Dover, DE
• Grainne Hambly and William Jackson at the Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown, NJ
• Tommy Fleming at Penn
• Dervish at the Sellersville theater

And it won’t even be St. Patrick’s Day yet!

One event next week to put on your calendar: The Ancient Order of Hibernians Div. 1 of Swedesburg is holding its third annual Irish Coffee contest on Thursday, March 13. Come for a free taste. Or two. Or three. Definitely worth coming out for on a school night.

As always, check our soon-to-be-canonized calendar for all the whiskey-laced details.