City Market

Join us for live music, food and fun as we celebrate all things Irish! The festivities begin on Friday, March 14th and continue all day Saturday. The party will feature live entertainment beginning Friday, March 14th at 2:00 p.m. There will be food and beverage booths, souvenirs for sale and more. Free and open to the public!

River Street

Enjoy live entertainment, food, games and fun from Thursday, March 13, to Sunday, March 16. Non-stop live Celtic and American entertainment featuring everything from the Prodigals to Live Band Karaoke. Two stages of non-stop live entertainment with Celtic, Country, Rock, Pop & Alternative music. It all starts with the I-95 Battle of the Bands Throwdown Thursday night, where you can catch the winner of WSAV's online Battle of the Bands! Interactive games, tons of food, enough beverages to quench the O'masses, Ford Motor Tour, Smoothie King, the 20' by 30' Verizon Text and Image Screen and more. The River Street Festival lasts all weekend long, with fireworks on Friday night! The event is free, but you must purchase a wristband ($5) to consume alcoholic beverages on the plaza or in restaurants and bars Friday and Saturday.

Live music list: Click here for a pdf of the bands playing this weekend on River Street!

What to watch for this year:

Night shuttle service out of downtown: go here to our shuttles & parking page for details.

Fewer entry points: Instead of 8 gates/entry points, this year there will only be 3: at MLK, the Lincoln ramp, and the East Broad ramp. River Street organizers encourage locals to use the East Broad ramp – they think it might be less crowded because it will be less obvious to visitors.

The cut back on entry gates is part of an effort to better control crowd flow and keep track of total numbers in the area at a time. There will be turnstiles as people enter and exit to track the numbers quickly and efficiently.

Despite the lower number of entry points, there will actually be more entrance lanes (lines of people going in) – instead of the usual 16 lanes for people to come through, there will be 18 total, so the flow of people entering may even be faster.

Light towers: There will be 2 light towers on River Street (provided by SCMPD) to illuminate shady areas. They will also be at Emmitt Park and along Bay Street.

Safety zone: A four-feet-wide path along the river will be blocked off and reserved for emergency personnel and police. This narrows the area for the crowd, so the Waterfront is redesigning the arrangement of vendors and stages some to better use the space.

Enforcing wristbands inside establishments: In the past, no one has really enforced the city ordinance that requires you have a wristband to purchase or drink alcohol in the festival area, even inside restaurants and bars. Vendors outside have required wristbands to purchase beverages, but this year the restaurants and bars will also require wristbands before selling beverages and will be able to sell them inside to customers. (Interesting tidbit to illustrate the projected crowd – the Waterfront will have 100,000 wristbands for Friday and 70,000 wristbands for Saturday.)

Clean restrooms for $5: There will be about 144 portapotties on River Street for free use, but for another $5 wristband, folks get a full day’s access to clean restrooms with running water. These are rented from Royal Restrooms and will be maintained and cleaned throughout the festival. Part of the proceeds will benefit non-profit volunteer groups.

Just for fun: This year there will be a GREEN FOAM PARTY – in the parking lot near Fiddler’s. The product that makes the foam is completely biodegradable.

Thursday, March 13, 4:30 p.m. - Jasper Green Ceremony Madison Square

Friday, March 14, 8 a.m. - Saint Patrick's Day Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Friday, March 14, 10:15 a.m. - Saint Patrick's Day Parade Parade kickoff