02/07/2022

Best Hotel Near Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Chicago hosts one of the greatest celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day in the world, and with accommodations at Hotel Chicago, you’ll be perfectly set up to take part in this year’s festivities!

That very much includes the Windy City’s world-famous St. Paddy’s Day parade, which will take place in its 67th annual iteration on Saturday, March 12th.

St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago

Long home to a significant Irish-American population contributing greatly to the city’s identity, Chicago kicked off its very first St. Patrick’s Day parades way back in the 1840s. As elsewhere in the United States, an event initially serving as a religious feast day honoring Ireland’s patron saint became more of a secular celebration of Irish and Irish-American culture.

The first “official” St. Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago—the first city-organized one, in other words—took place in 1956. That was a few years before another now-iconic tradition kicked off: the dyeing green of the Chicago River, orchestrated by the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union.

Today, some 500,000 spectators enjoy Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day routine.

2022 St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations in Chicago

The Chicago River turning an emerald green in honor of the Emerald Isle launches St. Patrick’s Day in town. This year, on the 12th of March, the requisite 40 pounds of environmentally friendly dye will hit the flow at 9 AM. With Autograph Collection accommodations here at Hotel Chicago, you’ll find yourself just steps away from the Chicago River suited up in its special St. Paddy’s Day hue, which usually lasts several hours.

The 67th Annual Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade, meanwhile, steps off at noon at Balbo and Columbus. With plenty of fanfare, it proceeds along Columbus Drive to a boisterous finish line in front of the Chicago Art Institute. The theme for this year’s downtown parade is a very appropriate one: “Honoring Chicagoland’s Essential Workers.”

The Saturday river-dyeing and downtown processional are only part of Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day fun: The city’s two other great St. Patrick’s Day parades, the Northwest Side and South Side versions, will strut their stuff the following day, March 13th.

Join Us for St. Patrick’s Day at Hotel Chicago

Calling one of our rooms or suites home for St. Patrick’s Day puts you within ready reach of the downtown parade in Grant Park (and that dyed Chicago River). Enjoy our stylish River North accommodations and amenities—plus convenient access to a dense concentration of outstanding Windy City restaurants and bars, including our own on-site establishments—while experiencing one of the country’s signature St. Paddy’s Day celebrations this March!