St Patrick’s Day 2012

St Patrick’s Day Festival Budapest 2012

2012 saw another great effort by all involved to firmly establish the St Patricks Day activities in the Budapest events calendar.

Support from Tourism Ireland, Budapest tourism, Guinness, Kingspan, Jamesons, Le Meridien and Jack Doyles helped contribute to a great weekend of activities.

The festivities kicked off with the final of the Gift of the Gab on Wednesday 14th March which was a roaring success.

The Mad House Theatre company entertained almost 100 people with a fantastic Irish play “Stones in his pockets”. This was hugely enjoyed by all and set the scene for an Irish weekend.

St Patrick’s Day itself was busy with over 1000 people joining the Irish community to walk through the centre of Budapest in the second St Patrick’s Day parade. The only non Irish aspect to the parade being the weather which no one complained about. The parade was lead by representatives from the Garda Siochana and the Irish Fire Service along with 6 Irish wolfhounds. A truly great success and a parade which help us spread the joy of Irishness throughout Budapest.

On the evening of the 17th the well established St Patricks Gala Dinner was well attended at Le Meridien hotel and festivities extended into the early hours.

Sunday 18th March finished off the festival with an Irish Film Festival held at the Toldi Cinema.

Our sincere appreciation and thanks goes out to all who contributed and participated in the events.

St Patrick’s Day Gala Dinner 2012

Le Meridien had the lights low with a green hue and the tables were decked in green and white. Guest started to arrive early to catch the Ireland England rugby game. Unfortunately, from early on the game was going badly for Ireland so most people abandoned it and mixed with the arriving international guests.

There were 100 guests at 12 tables. Numerous nationalities were represented: Irish; Hungarian; English; Scottish; American, to name but a few. A raffle got the evening off to a jovial start with 1-in-4 people a winner.

A sumptuous dinner was served in 5 courses; in between each course we were entertained by Erin dancing to music provided By Dagda. The finale had guests out on the floor learning a few Irish steps lead by Julia Gyulai, of dance company Coincidance.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening.

Thanks to everyone who sponsored and supported the event and we look forward to seeing you again next year.