IRISH FOR THE WEEKEND
From concerts to art, parades and more, Tri-State celebrates St. Patrick's Day
HUNTINGTON — Here in Marshallville, you don't have to ask folks twice to don the green and get a Herd party started.
With St. Patrick's Day falling on a Saturday, and on a weekend that has not only WVU, UK and Ohio State, but also Marshall playing in the NCAA Tournament, it's going to be wall-to-wall pub-crawling, pint-hoisting, jig-dancing party for the record books.
Here's a look at just a few of the St. Patrick's Day events happening in and around the Tri-State this weekend.
Get your shamrocks a-movin'
At 8:30 a.m. Saturday, March 17, head up to Huntington High School where the Highlanders are hosting a 5K run/walk as a fundraiser for the school's track and field program. The 5K run is a two-loop course utilizing the cross-country trail and the road on the campus of Huntington High. The 2-mile walk is one loop.
Register online at https://register.chronotrack.com/r/36951 and get more info at http://hhs.cabellschools.com/school_ pages/athletics/track/h_h_s_mountaintop_5_k_run__walk.
Searching for a pot of gold
At noon Saturday, the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District and New Heights Church team up for a pot of gold-themed Hike of the Month. The trail will be filled with some lucky shamrocks that will guide the way to a pot of gold at the end of the trail. The easy 1-mile hike starts at noon at the Ritter Park Tennis Center. It is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact GHPRD Recreation Superintendent Stacey Leep at 304-696-5954 or sleep@ghprd.org.
Bikers, bangers and bodegas
There will be more cabbage and corned beef than should be legal in downtown Huntington.
Two local biker hangouts — Buddy's All-American BBQ, 1537 3rd Ave., and the Harley-Davidson dealership, 408 4th St., will host St. Paddy's Day parties. Buddy's will serve up fresh corned beef and cabbage, Reubens, Rachels and shepherd's pie, while Black Sheep Harley-Davidson will host a party from noon to 4 p.m. with shepherd's pie, bread pudding and drinks. There will also be a St. Pat's Attire Contest and Indoor Tricycle Races around the showroom floor.
In the heart of downtown, The Bodega, 335 9th St., Huntington, will keep the 4th Avenue pub crawlers fed with authentic bangers and mash, house-cured corned beef, Irish soda bread and lots more Irish pub food from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. There also will be a photo booth for selfie shenanigans and more.
Let's Get Shamrocked
Shoppers, start your engines as downtown will be green on St. Patrick's Day with the inaugural Let's Get Shamrocked event, sponsored by Downtown Huntington Partners and iHeartMedia.
Head to the Pullman Square pavilion between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday to pick up your special DHP beads for $10. Then, show your beads at more than 30 retailers to get extra savings on all purchases made during regular business hours that day.
Participating businesses include Paint & Sip, VC Boutique, Kenzington Alley, Le Bistro, The Bodega, C.F. Reuschlein, Bahnhof, Peace Love & Little Donuts, Bow Love, Wright's, T.R. Dodrill Jewelers, Black Sheep, Summit Beer Station, Austin's Ice Cream, Highway 55, Glenn's Sporting Goods, MacKenzie Dow, The Lost Escape Room, Butter It Up, Taps, Roosters, Runway Couture, SIP, The Red Caboose, Birds of a Feather Boutique, Cellar Door, WildFlower, Old Main Emporium and Brand Yourself.
Big Sandy Superstore Arena also will be at the pavilion selling discounted tickets to upcoming shows for those who purchase the beads.
You can pre-purchase tickets online at Eventbrite.com by searching for Let's Get Shamrocked.
Beats and broccoli
Do you think that perfect pitch on a banjo and fiddle is 50 feet into a dumpster?
Is George Clinton and Parliament and Dumpstaphunk on your playlist?
Well, have we got the St. Patty's Day parties for you.
There's a couple cool and funky music parties Saturday night. From 8 to 11 p.m., the Press Club, 1212 4th Ave., will host a St. Paddy's Day full of R&B and hip-hop with The Heavy Hitters, Sin Revel and Shelem. Cover is $5 and the cozy Press Club — which has housemade paninis, pizzas and sandwiches — is all ages.
At the V Club, 741 6th Ave., it's a festival kind of double bill with Cleveland, Ohio-based electronica-jazz-jam unit Broccoli Samurai, who've played such fests as Floyd Fest and Electric Forest, along with Huntington's own M.F.B.
Doors open at 8 p.m., and the show is at 10 p.m. Saturday, March 17, for those 18 and up. Cover is $10. Go online at https://www.facebook.com/broccolisamurai/ and https://www.facebook.com/Mutha-Funkin/.
A Culture Storm of art
Stop by Paint and Sip, 948 4th Ave., Huntington, as they it hosts the Huntington Culture Storm multi-artists art bazaar with a wide variety of artists, photographers, writers and musicians.
The free party rolls 6 to 11 p.m. with live music from The Dinosaur Burps, Chocolate Four-Wheeler and Waxjaw.
Go online at https://www.facebook.com/culturestormwv/ to find out more about Huntington Culture Storm.
St. Paddy's party at St. Joe
Enjoy St. Paddy's Day with family and friends at St. Joseph's "Get Your Green On" event. The cost is $40/single or $75/couple. Sponsor tables are available at $750.
The event is set to run from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, March 17, at the Marshall University Foundation. There will be food, dancing, a 50/50 and much more.
For more information, call 304-522-2644.
German go Bragh
To prove everyone really is Irish for the day on St. Patrick's Day, the German-Appalachian restaurant Bahnhof WVrsthaus and Biergarten, 745 7th Ave., has hidden coins with its logo (featuring a dude with a bratwurst mustache), around Huntington.
Coin finders can redeem those for prizes at the restaurant, where the Biergarten will feature a slice of old-time music with The Modock Rounders — who will have their fiddles, banjos and guitars fired up from 2 to 4:30 p.m. playing some of those misty mountain tunes that date back to the British Isles.
The restaurant also will serve up some Irish grub like shepherd's pie and bangers and mash.
Parades in Southern Ohio
From noon to 4 p.m., Gallipolis, Ohio, will celebrate St. Patrick's Day at Gallipolis City Park and throughout the downtown.
Enjoy face painting, live music, inflatables, Little Miss & Mr. Leprechaun costume contests, artisans, vendors and more at this fundraiser for the Gallia County Artisan Market/The Artisan Shoppe and Studio, a nonprofit arts and culture organization in Gallia County.
The parade will kick off at 1 p.m.
Supersize that Southern Ohio St. Paddy's Day order in Portsmouth, where The 7 Nations Celtic Club has celebrated Ireland's patron saint since Friday, March 9.
With businesses lit up in green, Portsmouth will feature festivities daily leading up to Saturday. The music of Ireland and other Celtic nations gets a reboot from 8 to 11 p.m. Friday, March 16, from the Columbus, Ohio, band Two2Many. The music (and laughter) plays at the Port City Pub, 424 Chillicothe St.
On Saturday, there's the Community Action Organization of Scioto County's Shamrock Shuffle 5K walk/run that starts at 342 2nd St. in Portsmouth.
The 12th annual Portsmouth 7 Nations Celtic Club's St. Patrick's Parade will follow at 11 a.m., complete with the bagpipers of the Cyril Scott Band, a sea of folks in green attire and maybe a vision of St. Patrick. The parade will start on Market Street in Portsmouth and wind down 2nd Street to Washington, 5th, and then Chillicothe Street to end at Tracy Park. The Cyril Scott bagpipers will later go to the Port City Pub where more Irish dance, music, food and dancing will commence throughout the day and evening courtesy of the Cirque D'Art dancers, Amhrain, the Poverty String Band, the Rose Mountain Ramblers, and Ian Jones and the Tipperary Three.
Charleston Pub Crawl
Get found in the downtown over Charleston way from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday for the seventh annual East End St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl. Crawl between five East End pubs near the intersection of Washington Street East and Elizabeth Street from 6 to 10 p.m., and three more pubs at the corner of Leon Sullivan Way and Lee Street from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. enjoying food and drink specials, live Celtic music from FOOTMAD, the Shamrock Challenge with a bunch of prizes, a Pub Crawl T-shirt and drink koozie, and more.
Thanks to the state of West Virginia and the city of Charleston, Washington Street East from Sydney Avenue to Maxwell Street will be shut down and for pedestrians only.
Great Paddy's weekend picking
Few folks can fire up a good bonfire of a fiddle tune on the flat-picked guitar like Virginia mountain man Larry Keel.
Keel, one of the world's top shelf flat-pickers, rolls back to West Virginia at 9 p.m. Friday, March 16, at The Boulevard Tavern, 806 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, with The Larry Keel Experience — Jared Pool, mandolin, and Jenny Keel, bass. Tickets are $15 advance and $20 at the door for those 21 and up. Go online at lketav.brownpapertickets.com to get tickets and online at larrykeel.com for more info about Keel.
At Milton's Mountaineer Opry House, IBMA Hall of Famer Doyle Lawson brings his crack unit, Quicksilver, back to burn up the stage with their bluegrass gospel at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 17.
With more than 40 albums to their credit, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver have multiple Grammy, Dove, ICM, IBMA and SPBGMA Award nominations, and are seven-time winners of IBMA's Vocal Group of the Year.
Go online at https://doylelawson.com or http://mountaineeropry.com/.
And last but not least, out at the Robert Newlon Airpark, 6090 Kyle Lane, Huntington, The Fly In Festival & The Fly In Cafe will present a St. Patrick's Day Celebration starting at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Join members of The Bing Brothers and other old-time pickers Saturday evening for a special St. Patrick's Day picking party with food, drinks, and Irish and Old-Time Pickin' with friends and family. No sound system, no stage show — just a big open jam. Bring your acoustic instruments and join in.
Source: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/irish-for-she-weekend/article_8d898bc5-91ec-58c8-a857-1d98cb873859.html