St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin

As one could expected… it rained yesterday, fortunately it never poured! People start to arrive to O'Connell Street as early as 10am to secure a good vantage point (parade began at 12 noon). Parade was breathtaking, three thousand performers, ten marching bands (one without instruments as they were lost in transit ;-) – big cheer for courage to march without instruments!). Themed “legendary” the spirits of Irish, European and worlds myths and legends came alive through magnificent and colourful costumes and platforms. The parade was very multicultural as today’s Ireland is. We could admire Brazilian maracatu dancers; Liberties samba band from Dublin; brightly coloured Sikh; marching bands from USA; musicians from Spain and Germany; Lithuanians, Poles and many others.
According to Irish Times over 650 thousand people attended the parade; you could really see an ocean of green all over city.

More photos available here.

Now I’m looking forward to the Skyfest in Docklands this evening (the best viewing locations are along North Wall Quay and Rogerson's Quay). Now I'm not kidding - it's snowing now in Dublin!!! I think I'd rather stay at home and watch the Skyfest on RTE ;-)