St. Pats Five Points Festival expected to bring over 30,000 people, record sales

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Break out your green clothing and any lucky charms you may have — the 41st annual St. Patrick’s Day festival in Five Points begins tomorrow morning.

Executive Director of the Five Points Association, Heather McDonald, expects another massive turnout.

“We are looking to have hopefully over 30,000 attendees for tomorrow’s festival. That includes our vendors as well, our artists and crew, folks that may spill over from the parade as well as our get to the green race,”McDonald says.

According to the Five Points Association, the festival previously brought in over $7 million.

“So that’s been super amazing for us. Thirty-five percent of our attendees are from out of state,” McDonald says.

She also says over 2,000 zip codes and countries from around the world have been represented at the festival in previous years.

This year, the festival will include four stages with 20 acts, a new EDM alley, and DJ stage by the fountain.

While some businesses choose to close for the day, others expect impressive sales.

“Tomorrow, it’s gonna be more of a bar style so we can cater to the crowd. And we’re super excited. We expect a huge turnout. We know it’s gonna be a really fun day. All of our servers are really excited, we’ve been picking out our outfits all we know so we know it’s gonna be a really great day for Publico,” says Server Lyndon Gerber.

Gunnar Burts is the owner of a new pop up bar called “Harp and The Hype”.

“It’s crazy how much goes into just being able to sell beer and wine during a festival. It’s taken about 3 months of a lot of work to get to this point. So we’re very excited to have some fun and get tomorrow going,” Burts says.

The festival has plenty for families as well with the Pot O’ Gold Playground — complete with face painting, karaoke, and swag for the kids.

You can also download the new St. Pats in Five Points app to get all event details.