st patrick's day in new orleans is pretty family friendly and booze fueled. i guess having a parade and floats and allowing people to drink outside means family fun.

/ actually, that is the difference. most of america forbids people from drinking in public. that means you have to be in a bar. bars are not places for kids. so, you want family fun, let people drink in the streets.

drxym: The stupid part is if you did go to a genuine Irish St Patrick's Day parade in any Irish town or city, it's all about the kids. The drinking starts later.

i kind of thought this was the case. I'm not irish, but our st patrick's day parade goes through our 'irish channel', an historically irish part of town. it is definitely for children. there are marching bands, floats, people handing out cabbages, a number of social groups marching, and children running around having a great time.

of course, people are also drinking, but it's day time drinking. that's practically sober by new orleans' standards.

/ and then night time comes, the parades end, and there's more jameson in everyone's bellies.

fireclown: pute kisses like a man: i kind of thought this was the case. I'm not irish, but our st patrick's day parade goes through our 'irish channel', an historically irish part of town. it is definitely for children. there are marching bands, floats, people handing out cabbages, a number of social groups marching, and children running around having a great time.

of course, people are also drinking, but it's day time drinking. that's practically sober by new orleans' standards.


The New Orleans Irish Channel parade is badass. You people are crazy. Not just drinking crazy, but cabbage-throwing crazy. Who throws cabbages at a crowd? I'll tell ya who: Slightly drunk New Orleanians. That might not be the biggest, or booziest parade in the crescent city, but it's one of the most fun.

it's kind of a special time. there's a calm that takes over the city after carnivale ends. people go on lent, partying slows down, people have to work to make up for all the lost days over mardi gras. so, there's this well earned lull in partying.

then st patrick's day comes along, and since it's a saint's day, it's a dispensation from fasting, so you can bust out the dusty booze bottles and put pork in your cabbage.

also, the parade doesn't go to the french quarter, so you skip a certain tourist demographic that tends to be looking for something different.