St Patrick’s parade and festival set for London

St Patrick’s Day celebrations in central London are returning on Sunday.

Organised by the mayor of London and the London Irish Centre, a parade featuring floats, marching bands, dance troupes and pageantry will travel from Hyde Park past Trafalgar Square and on to Whitehall.

Paralympic cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy and Olympic boxer Kellie Harrington, who each won two gold medals in this year’s games, will be grand marshals for the event.

There will also be a festival in Trafalgar Square from 12:00 to 18:00 GMT showcasing arts, music, culture and food.

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In addition to performances by Kila, Irish Women in Harmony and Rag-CV there will be sessions from Irish Creative Collective with comedy, spoken word, film and TV, as well as dance workshops.

Not only that, there will be an exhibition featuring Ireland’s unsung women heroes.

Celebrity chef Anna Haugh will return to the event, this time with a new wine and food bar celebrating Irish cuisine.

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City Hall said the theme of this year’s event is sustainability and as part of this, children can take part in workshops to turn recycled and reused material into headdresses, bunting and a giant mural.

Visitors can also watch clips from a new film which documented Nick Kelly and his band Dogs as they cycled from Dublin to Glastonbury to perform at last year’s festival.

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