Being Irish for a day: Steam Whistle brewery’s annual St. Paddy’s Day bash

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Celebrated near globally, St. Patrick’s Day extends past its Irish religious roots with dozens of countries taking part on March 17^th – often extending to the days and weeks surrounding it – every year. Accepted as an annual general celebration of Irish culture, St. Patrick’s Day is even deemed a provincial holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Toronto may not have such luck in calling the 17^th a holiday, but seeing as that this year’s St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Saturday; the city was out to celebrate it with little regard for the inevitable hang-over’s on Sunday. The celebration of Irish culture for most begin with something green followed by beer, along with fiddles and bag pipes with Irish folk dance thrown in for good measure.

Toronto began this year’s celebrations a week early, when on March 11^th the city played host to the Toronto St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

By the time Saturday, March 17^th rolled around Torontonians were well and truly ready for their 2012 St. Patrick’s Day revelry. Playing host to one of the city’s most respected annual Irish bashes, Steam Whistle brewery was one of the must be places for this year’s social celebrations.

The aptly green themed Steam Whistle brand and their brewery location – the stone building of the Roundhouse – seem a perfectly planned match for a St. Patrick’s Day party. Coupled with their reputation for throwing some of the best events each year, it was no surprise that when doors to the Roundhouse opened at 2pm on Saturday, there was already a lineup of party-goers winding down the block.

Inside the Roundhouse, the band had taken stage by 3pm. Poor Angus officially opened the party up saying “remember, the more you drink, the better we’ll sound” and lead the crowd with a mighty swig. Playing a combination of bad pipes, a fiddle, a mandolin, a bodhran, and everything else a Celtic band could call on for sound, Poor Angus managed a terrific harmony of very authentic Irish themed music with sounds and energy that made an Irishman or Irishwoman of every listener in the crowd.

In addition to the live music, partiers were being well and truly entertained by dancers from the likes of the Woodgate-Shamrock Academy of Irish Dance and Brogue. There wasn’t a partier in-house who wasn’t tapping their toes and attempting variations of Irish stepdance as the night progressed.

It was unfortunate that once the venue hit its capacity – within minutes – there were still hundreds of partiers lined up outside with very little hope of finding their way in. By 5pm, there were people lined up outside that had been there since 2pm, and there were still more people joining the crowds. Although the partiers inside roared away, those waiting outside had little choice but to turn away and find their celebration elsewhere. Seems the Steam Whistle St. Patrick’s Day celebration had become a victim of its own success that evening.

Despite the disappointed partiers outside, the 2012 Steam Whistle St. Patrick’s Day Party went well in to the night. As things wrapped up at the Roundhouse by midnight, hundreds of bowls of beer infused Irish Stew had been served up, thousands of green cans of Steam Whistle beer had been poured out and chugged down, there were dozens of small groups of happy partiers walking up to Bremner Boulevard looking for their next Toronto party destination. Even with a massively entertaining party at the Steam Whistle brewery, no one was quite ready to hang up their green hats and call it a night.

As with every successful St. Patrick’s Day party, Steam Whistle had found a way to help every partier become Irish for a day, and seems no one was ready to change back that night.

Follow Kanishka Sonnadara on Twitter @autoKsS.

Photography courtesy of Steam Whistle.