Plans for alternative Patrick's Day festival to be revealed on Tuesday

The Cabinet is to be presented with the new plans for the St Patrick's Day festival after health restrictions scuppered the traditional parade. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

The Cabinet is to be presented with the new plans for the St Patrick's Day festival on Tuesday after health restrictions scuppered the traditional parade.

Culture Minister Catherine Martin has committed up to €1m in programme funding from her department. This is in addition to €400,000 in business continuity funding through Fáilte Ireland for events.

Funding will go towards the festival and related activities, with a special dedicated online channel this year. Full details of the festival will be announced on Wednesday.

It's understood Ms Martin wants to ensure St Patrick’s Festival 2021 still offers households and regions a "hybrid approach" involving a mix of outdoor, broadcast, digital and tech events and activities.

The new events will also provide employment and commissioning opportunities to performers who would traditionally have been employed around St Patrick’s Day.

The festival programme, still to be announced, will include: St Patrick’s Festival Online TV – St Patrick’s Festival TV Channel (SPF TV), a special RTÉ St Patrick’s Day broadcast, a virtual parade and more than 100 events taking place across six virtual days and nights.

St. Patrick’s Festival returns from March 12 to 17 with six great virtual days and nights of online events! See our full statement and sign up for news and updates at https://t.co/AIawjx4TQ0 #stpatricksfestival pic.twitter.com/CYvvt9GgqT

— St. Patrick's Festival 🇮🇪🐍☘️💚 (@stpatricksfest) January 20, 2021

The St Patrick's Festival 2021 online broadcast is hoped to reach an international audience through the department’s Culture Ireland separate programme, Seoda, presenting Irish artists online over a five-day period, March 17-21.

An Irish language strand of the festival, Nathanna Cainte, will feature a programme of Irish language events, including a reading workshop for young people in conjunction with TG4 and a bilingual poetry/rap/music event.

This is the second St Patrick's Day festival which has been moved online due to Covid-19 restrictions. In January, the organisers of the festival confirmed it would not go ahead in 2021. The organisers of the festival said while it would not be possible to “gather on the streets”, they were “ reimagining how we bring to life the heart and soul of the national parade”.

Cabinet does not need to approve the plans, the Minister will bring them only for Cabinet to note.