Photos: St. Patrick’s Day revelry consumes River Walk, downtown San Antonio

📸: Kaylee Greenlee Beal | @kgreenleephoto | Heron contributor

📸: Ben Olivo | Heron editor

St. Patrick’s Day in downtown San Antonio? “Hold my beer,” the city said on Thursday.

Thousands of people, either those who happened to be downtown anyway, or those who were there for the revelry, took in the annual dyeing of the San Antonio River, shall we say, a darker shade of green. Emerald green, if you will.

The partying started around noon, and Irish pubs such as Durty Nelly’s Pub and Waxy O’Connors on the River Walk, and Pat O’s (Pat O’Brien’s) and Maddy McMurphy’s Irish Sports Bar on Losoya Street were packed with green beer flowing like it was end times. A mini barge parade featuring a leprechaun mascot, a bagpipe player, and other characters, took off from Mad Dogs British Pub at 1 p.m., the boats dispensing 25 gallons of eco-friendly green dye into the river.

People lined the river, the bridges and other vantage points above, to take in the small parade, many recording videos on their phones.

Recently, Thrillist named San Antonio one of the best cities to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, which has been a thing in here since 1968.

The festivities concluded Saturday afternoon with the annual river parade and festival on the River Walk, and at La Villita, respectively.

The events were organized by Visit San Antonio – River Walk Operations and The Harp & Shamrock Society of Texas. — Heron staff

📸 📹: Be sure to visit our Instagram accounts, @sanantonioheron and @downtownsanantonio, for more photos and video.

Kaylee Greenlee Beal is a freelance photojournalist based in San Antonio. She graduated from Baylor University in May 2020 with a major in journalism and minor in political science. Follow her on Twitter at @kayleegreenlee or on Instagram at @kgreenleephoto.

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