St Patrick's Day Pub Ideas: Events, Food and Promotions

St Patrick's Day 2027 is a Wednesday, which is good news for a pub: a midweek night with a reason built in. It comes four days after the Six Nations finishes on Super Saturday with Ireland v France, so the rugby crowd you fill the pub with on 13 March is the crowd you sell Wednesday to. In Northern Ireland it is a bank holiday, so the day starts at lunchtime.

You do not need to be an Irish pub to run a good St Patrick's Day. You need one clear headline, food that goes with a pint, drinks offers that stay within your licence, and a team ready for a much busier Wednesday than usual. These are the St Patrick's Day pub ideas that work, and how to run them.

St Patrick's Day 2027 at a glance

Pick one headline

A St Patrick's night with live music, a quiz, a menu, a raffle and a dance display is five things to organise and none of them done well. Pick one headline and build the night around it.

Live Irish music

A traditional session, with fiddle, guitar, whistle and bodhrán, or a band playing the Irish songs everybody knows. Musicians are in demand on St Patrick's Day, so book in January and agree the set times. Our guide to live music events covers booking and hosting, and our PRS and PPL guide explains the music licence.

A St Patrick's quiz

A themed quiz on a Wednesday is a format your regulars already understand. Rounds on Irish geography, music, film and sport, with a Six Nations round from the weekend before, and a picture round of Irish landmarks. Our quiz night guide covers the format, the rounds and the answer sheets.

An Irish night

Food, music and something to watch: a themed menu, a playlist or a band, and a display from a local Irish dance school if there is one near you. Add an Irish whiskey tasting of three for the people who want something to sit with.

Daytime, in Northern Ireland

With a bank holiday, the day starts early. Plan a lunch menu, family tables and the evening as separate sittings, and check your permitted hours before you promote any of them.

Ideas for St Patrick's Day food

Keep it to a short themed menu, three or four dishes, alongside your normal one. These are dishes that go with a pint and come out of a pub kitchen quickly.

• Irish stew. Lamb, potato, onion and carrot, cooked slowly and served in a bowl with soda bread.
• A beef and stout pie, or the same filling as a stew.
• Bacon and cabbage, a traditional Irish dinner, with a parsley sauce.
• Sausages with colcannon or champ. Colcannon is mashed potato with cabbage or kale; champ is mashed potato with spring onion.
• Boxty, Irish potato pancakes, as a starter or a base for a loaded bar snack.
• Soda bread with butter, on the side of everything.
• For pudding: a whiskey bread and butter pudding, or a chocolate and stout cake.

Menu ideas for St Patrick's Day: getting it right

• Write the menu for the night, not the week. A themed menu that runs only on 17 March sells on urgency.
• Prep for a drinks-led night. Expect most of the room to be drinking first and eating second, so make the food quick to send and easy to eat standing up.
• Take the allergens from your suppliers. Stout contains barley, a cereal containing gluten; soda bread contains wheat; colcannon and champ contain milk. Giving accurate allergen information is a legal requirement (GOV.UK).

Bar ideas for St Patrick's Day

• Stout, Irish whiskey and Irish coffee, at your normal prices, served well and served fast.
• An Irish whiskey flight, three whiskeys in your house measure. Gin, rum, vodka and whisky by the glass must come in 25ml or 35ml measures, or multiples of them, and not both in the same pub (GOV.UK).
• Alcohol-free stout and a proper alcohol-free choice, because it is a Wednesday and plenty of people are at work in the morning.
• Green, everywhere but the beer. Bunting, shamrocks, staff in something green, and a "wear something green" invitation in the promotion.

Drinks without risky promotions

St Patrick's Day is the night a drinks offer is most tempting and most likely to get a pub into trouble.

• In Scotland, free or cheaper drinks when someone buys a drink, unlimited drinks for a fixed charge, alcohol as a prize, promotions based on strength and anything that rewards drinking quickly are all banned. Once you change a drink's price it must stay the same for at least 72 hours, which rules out a St Patrick's happy hour (Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, Schedule 3).
• In England and Wales, the mandatory licence conditions ban drinking games, and ban unlimited drinks for a fixed price and drinks as prizes where they risk undermining the licensing objectives.
• Everywhere, sell the night, not the discount. A great band and a full room is the offer.

Marketing ideas for St Patrick's Day

1. The week of 22 February. The announcement: the headline, the date, the menu and whether it is ticketed. Put the poster up and email the guests who have asked to hear from you.
2. The week of 1 March. Table bookings for food, and table cards for the rugby on 5 and 6 March: "St Patrick's Day is Wednesday 17 March. Here is what is on."
3. The week of 8 March. Super Saturday is your biggest crowd of the month, so make sure everyone in the pub on 13 March knows about Wednesday.
4. Monday 15 March. The countdown: the band's set times, the menu and "wear something green".
5. Wednesday 17 March. Photos and a short video from the night. Ask before you post anyone's face.
6. Thursday 18 March. A thank-you post, and the next date: the Easter weekend, from Good Friday, 26 March.

Our guide to planning your spring with AI has copy-and-paste prompts that write these posts and the poster for you.

Staffing the night

Plan St Patrick's Day as a Saturday that happens to fall on a Wednesday.

• Rota for a weekend, not a Wednesday. More hands on the bar, someone collecting glasses all night, and breaks planned before the doors open.
• Order early. Get the extra stout, whiskey and alcohol-free stock in before Super Saturday, and check the cellar has room for the extra kegs.
• Brief the team on refusing service. A busy themed night is when it matters most. Agree who makes the call and how, before the night starts.
• Check ages. Your age verification policy applies on the busiest nights too. In Scotland, the law requires a policy of checking the age of anyone who looks under 25 (Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, Schedule 3). In England and Wales, the mandatory conditions require a policy for anyone who looks under 18, or an older age if your policy sets one.
• Free tap water. It must be available on request, in Scotland, England and Wales, and on a night like this it should be on the bar.

Hosting a St Patrick's Day party for a group

Clubs, societies, workplaces and groups of friends will want a space of their own. Offer a room and a package: a fixed-price buffet, a playlist or a band, and a set time for the room. Take a deposit when the group books and confirm the numbers a week before, so the kitchen knows what to make.

When you are ready for more

Everything in this guide works on its own, and you can run all of it yourself.

When you are ready for change, and want every event to sell itself, with one place for your events, bookings and messages and figures that show what each night earned, that is what Orange Jelly builds. At The Anchor, our own venue, we grew private hire bookings by 567%.

If that is what you want for your pub, call me on 07990 587315 or email peter@orangejelly.co.uk. The rest of the season, from Burns Night to Easter, is in our Spring Pub Playbook.

Sources

• UK bank holidays (GOV.UK)
• Men's Six Nations 2027 fixtures (Six Nations Rugby)
• Running a food business: allergies (GOV.UK)
• Weights and measures: specified quantities (GOV.UK)
• Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, Schedule 3 (legislation.gov.uk)
• The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) (Amendment) Order 2014 (legislation.gov.uk)

Sources checked on 19 October 2026.