Disappointing photos show what it's like to spend St. Patrick's Day in New York City

The St. Patrick's Day Parade has been held in New York City almost every year since 1762, making it the oldest and largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the world. According to the organizers, around 150,000 people march every year, and the parade attracts 2 million spectators.

It's held on March 17 every year unless that date falls on a Sunday; in that case, it's held on Saturday, March 16, which it does in 2024.

According to WalletHub, more than 31.3 million Americans claim they're at least a little bit Irish, and people across the US are projected to spend $7.2 billion to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in 2024. New York City is a particularly good place to celebrate — it has the most Irish pubs and restaurants per capita, according to the report.

I've lived in New York City for the last five years, but I grew up on Long Island, and I happened to be visiting my family on St. Patrick's Day last year.

So I dragged my mom and younger brother with me, and we headed to the Long Island Rail Road to catch a train to the city.

I was all ready for the train to be packed full of revelers, but it was actually almost empty. There were just two green-clad people on the platform.

When I arrived, I saw more people dressed in green, including more than a few people with beers and other drinks. One group of guys had a case of Miller all ready to go.

This is the (relatively) new LIRR terminal at Grand Central, known as Grand Central Madison. It cost the city $11.1 billion to construct. It opened in February 2023.

At least, our side of the street was. The other side, the park side, could be a little deserted at times, but there was no easy way to get across as far as I could see.

The parade goes up Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 79th Street. Since I live on the Upper East Side, I figured we'd start by my apartment and work our way down. I'm unsure if that was the best plan — the end of the parade route was significantly less crowded.

There were over two dozen road closures along the parade route, which can make getting around in the city a total nightmare.

We missed a few bands just because of where we were standing.

This was partially our fault since we picked the spot, but at least three bands silently walked by us only to start playing a block or two up. It was annoying, so we kept moving to try and time our stops better.

I went to college in New Orleans, so I've attended dozens of Mardi Gras parades in my time. In my experience, there would never be this amount of blank space during one of those parades between the floats, dancers, and marching bands.

Since this parade doesn't have floats and is instead more of a celebration of the Irish-American community, I found there was quite a lot of downtime between bands.

My family and I were perplexed by some of the groups who were marching in the parade.

Members of the New York City Police Department and New York City Fire Department were all dressed in their best; the marching bands and dancers wore eye-catching costumes, and most of the organizations had matching sashes or hats.

But every so often, a group would come along looking like they'd snuck their way onto the parade route.

BORGs were the latest drink craze last year: The name stands for "blackout rage gallon," and, as Business Insider reported, they caused trouble on college campuses.

On my journey, I walked past a group of three girls each holding giant water jugs that were filled with an unidentifiable green liquid. They'd written "BORG" on the side.

I was also dodging tourists, people trying to sell items to those tourists, and some people who seemed drunk.

During my visit to last year's parade, there was a crowd of supporters waving flags and banners with "Trump 2024" on them outside Trump Tower's Fifth Avenue entrance. I could sense a bit of unease around the supporters as they were yelling loudly at both paradegoers and marchers, but nothing ever came of it, as far as I witnessed.

There were also multiple signs with the phrase "England Get Out of Ireland," which, according to Irish Central, is the only political sign allowed in the parade proper. I hadn't realized it's been part of the parade for decades.

Also posted throughout the parade were fliers criticizing Patrick Lynch, the then-police union president and an aide to the Parade Grand Marshal. Fliers said he should not be involved in the event. Lynch retired in June 2023.

The union (the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York) did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider by the time of publication. Neither did the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade Organization.

We had to keep walking halfway down the block just to cross the street, which got old really fast.

This was one of the lines to cross the street, which became increasingly long as the crowd grew. It took up to 10 minutes just to cross.

This obviously isn't the fault of the parade or its organizers, and luckily, it was relatively warm out last year, and it was warm again during the parade this year. But March in New York City can be brutal.

St. Patrick's Cathedral is one of New York City's most famous landmarks. It opened its doors in 1879 and has been open for anyone to visit since then. I couldn't get close to it because of where I was on the parade route, but it was still powerful to be close by.

Unfortunately, it seemed like some of the parade attendees were getting into the spirit a little too much. I saw people drinking, yelling, and swaying at this point in the route.

To me, the St. Patrick's Day Parade was decently entertaining, but not worth the hype.

I'd recommend finding your local Irish pub and celebrating there, instead. That's what I plan on doing this year.

This story was originally published on March 17, 2023, and most recently updated on March 16, 2024.