By Grace Bourne, Second Year, History and French
The St Patricks Day Parade 2025 has been cancelled as a result of funding deficits and the ‘current economic climate’ according to the West of England Irish (W.E Irish) official website.
W.E Irish (originally the Bristol Irish Society) is the non-for-profit responsible for organising and running the St Patrick’s Parade for the last 30 years and was set up in 1989 to ‘improve the welfare, education and social life of the Irish in Bristol.’
According to W.E. Irish the festival and parade ‘is one of the last existing Free independently run festivals left in the UK’ and is advertised as being ‘not funded by big business’ and ‘free to attend’.
The Parade has traditionally been an entirely free event, available to all ages and groups with the aim of encouraging people to experience Irish culture through sport, food, comedy, film, dance, music and much more. According to W.E. Irish the event is attended by over 10,000 visitors each year, and therefore its cancellation is bound to cause widespread upset across Bristol and the Southwest.
There will, however, still be some events available to those wanting to celebrate St Patrick’s with the broader Bristol Irish community, with two events being hosted on the 17th of March.
Fleadh Cheoil, an Irish music festival will continue to be celebrated with free entry at the Glass Arcade and a ticketed event at Revolution bar. It will be a much smaller event than the traditional parade but will include a lot of the same cultural displays including ‘live bands and traditional Irish dance performances.’
W.E Irish have acknowledged the ‘disappointing news’ but have launched a fundraiser on their website to fund the 2026 parade which they expect will be a ‘truly unforgettable experience’.
The fundraiser page can be found here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/weirish-culture-fest-st-patricks-day-parade.
