Guide to St. Pat’s in Kingston in 2010

I know this incredible weather has some people a little out of sorts and confused, and then we throw in the time change and it’s like we’ve skipped ahead two months, but rest assured, we haven’t and tomorrow is in fact St. Patrick’s Day.  For me, St. Patty’s has always been about the music and luckily, we have a lot of great Irish music in town to keep us entertained all day.  Here is this year’s guide to St. Pat’s.

Tir nan Og:  Probably Kingston’s most popular destination for St. Pat’s due to its large size, ample amount of Irish food and beverage and its relationship with the Irish Folk Club.  Tomorrow the ‘Nog will have a giant (heated?  maybe not this year) tent to accommodate the throngs of folks who are Irish for the day.  There will be live entertainment all day and night provided by The MacNificents, Requests with Dan, The Tir nan Og Irish Dancers, live DJs and much more.  The only downside is that you will have to stand in line so get there early to try to beat the crowds!

The Mansion:  The Mansion is probably the place to be on Upper Princess with live music on every floor of the building.  Starting at 2pm on the main floor (aka The Rec Room) there will be Irish music performed by Boru’s Harp (Kingston’s only Celtic band with two fiddles!) and Free Whiskey.  Both bands will alternate until close and are charging no cover.   If you’d rather do up some blues, downstairs in the newer Wine Cellar will be a performance by Telfer with Emily Fennell opening.  This show won’t get rolling ’til 9pm and tickets are $10 at the door.  If rock and reggae are more your thing, upstairs in the cozy Living Room will be Ianspotting, likely starting around 10pm.

The RCHA: The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (located above the old Stoney’s on the third floor) will have live music from 2pm-6pm performed by The Irish Stew Duo.  They have great bar prices and are only charging $1 at the door.  You’re also invited to bring an instrument if you feel like joining in.

Clark Hall Pub:  If you’re a student or are looking to hang on Queen’s campus, Clark Hall is putting on a “Patio Blowout” with live music and green beer from noon-6pm.

The Loyal Oarsman: Irish Roots will be playing all day from 2pm-9pm.  There are promises of great beer and a possible sighting of The Keith’s Girls (yay?).

If you’re not overly concerned with catching live Irish music and are really just looking for a reason to get loaded on a Wednesday, there are plenty of places having St. Pat’s parties sans live music:

Stages is offering up green beer and music by DJs Knowledj and Ally.  There will probably be lots of green drinks flowing too.

The Toucan, The Iron Duke, The Merchant, MyBar, The Brass and The Brew Pub are all great venues for a true pub experience.  Sadly, none of these places are offering up any live music or specials that we can find, but tried and true, you’ll likely still find lots of fun at any of these popular Kingston bars.

So get your green on and get out there for a fun and safe day.  If we missed any events, please send ’em our way!

Special thanks to cobalt123 for today’s lucky photo.