This year's St. Patrick's Festival programme has been launched, an ‘Imagine If’ theme for the parade.
The 21st anniversary special runs for four days, and includes treasure hunts, ceilis and theatre shows which will be dotted around Dublin.
In 2014 festival organisers began a three-year umbrella theme - the Past, the Present and the Future. This year, to fit in with the Future aspect, the theme is 'Imagine If…'.
St. Patrick’s Festival organisers say marking 100 years since the Easter Rising has helped shape the programme.
Susan Kirby, CEO of St. Patrick’s Festival said "Over the past months we have been collaborating with children, young adults and some fantastic leading Irish pageant companies to bring this vision, that marks this seminal year for Ireland, to life, in a creative and artistic way."
Noel John McLoughlin, Fáilte Ireland’s Director of marketing said “The festival is easily the largest festival in Ireland and it attracts over 112,000 overseas visitors - benefitting the economy to the tune off €73m."
"We look forward to another successful week this year and I am sure that all who attend, from home and abroad, will thoroughly enjoy themselves", he added.
The four-day programme is bursting with events all over Dublin, which you can explore in full here.
The ever popular cultural programme, I Love My City, returns to the 2016 festival, with an open mic storytelling competition. Storytellers who put their names in a hat are selected at random to tell a story on the spot on the night’s chosen theme.
On Friday 18th, people are invited to get their dancing shoes on and join the Festival Céilí at Ireland’s largest outdoor celebration of traditional Irish dancing in the city centre.
Sunday brings the Festival Big Day Out at the heart of Georgian Dublin with Merrion Square providing a stunning setting for a day-long street carnival.
Partner events around Dublin this year include the Dublin Bay Prawn Festival, taking place from Friday 18th – Sunday 20th.
