St. Patrick’s Day Parade: route and street closures

Everything you need to know about the St. Patrick's Day festivities in NYC

The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade may be a week away, but it's never too early to start planning for the big event—or making your plans to avoid the route, if that's your thing.

Of course, other parts of the city start celebrating early: the smaller St. Patty's For All parade, which is intended as an inclusive event to "celebrate Irish heritage and culture regardless of race, gender, creed or sexual orientation," was held last weekend, along with celebrations in the Rockaways and Staten Island.

But the one that most people know is the parade on Fifth Avenue, which celebrates its 256th anniversary this year. The parade will kick off on Friday, March 17th at 11 a.m., drawing about two million spectators along the route as more than 150,000 marchers make their way up Fifth Avenue from East 44th Street to 79th Street, bypassing the historic—and recently renovated—St. Patrick's Cathedral and a host of other famous city sites.

Street closures won't be announced until closer to the event, but you can count on Midtown and the Upper East Side being a traffic nightmare. As it gets closer to the date for the big Fifth Avenue event, we'll update with street closures, but for now, this map of the route should help:

But before that, the Bronx, which has an active Irish population, will hold its own event: the Throggs Neck St. Patrick's Day Parade happens this Sunday, March 12, beginning at Lafayette and Tremont Avenues at 11 a.m. Street closures for that are as follows:

Formation:

Lafayette Avenue between Swinton Avenue and East Tremont Avenue

Route:

East Tremont Avenue between Lafayette Avenue and Harding Avenue

Dispersal:

Harding Avenue between East Tremont Avenue and Brinsmade Avenue

So there's that.

• New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade [Official]
• St. Patty's for All Parade [Official]