We’ve made it to St. Patrick’s Day parade weekend. Here are some ways to spend it.

Go green

The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade is at 10 a.m. Saturday. With more than 200 groups and 20,000 participants, it will be one of the biggest parades in the history of the event, which dates back to 1869.

The parade route is 1.4 miles. It begins at the intersection of Liberty Avenue and 11th Street to Grant Street onto the Boulevard of the Allies. It reaches Stanwix Street and disburses at Commonwealth Place.

A Mass is scheduled to be celebrated by Bishop David Zubik at 8 a.m. at St. Patrick’s church in the Strip District.

Details: pittsburghstpatricksdayparade.com

Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review Pipe bands warm up before the beginning of the 2022 Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2022. This year’s event is March 11.  

WWE

Friday Night SmackDown is at 7:45 p.m. on Friday at PPG Paints Arena, Uptown. See the undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Intercontinental Champion Gunther, Drew McIntyre, SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair, Braun Strowman, Sami Zayn and the undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos.

Tickets start at $20.

Details: ppgpaintsarena.com

Courtesy of WWE Friday Night SmackDown is at 7:45 p.m. on March 10 at PPG Paints Arena.  

On ice

“Le Patin Libre,” which means “The Free Skate” in French, is a contemporary ice skating company from Montreal, originally founded in 2005 by ex-high-level figure skaters.

They will perform at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the UPMC Rink at PPG Place, Downtown. The show will include choreography and theatrics and a new work developed specifically for Pittsburgh.

The event is presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, part of the 2022-2023 Pittsburgh Dance Council season.

Tickets start at $15.

Details: trustarts.org.

⛸️ TONIGHT: @lepatinlibre takes to the ice at @PPGRink for the first of three performances as part of the 2022-2023 Pittsburgh Dance Council season.

There's a seat saved for you ➡️ https://t.co/CfFZpB9Czs pic.twitter.com/4nXBkIuQoB

— Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (@CulturalTrust) March 9, 2023

Children’s Museum

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh will host a Rube Goldberg Challenge Weekend that will include two days of events and special activities. The event is from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Participants can build, create, move and play in ways inspired by the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg. There will be story time, dancing and singing.

Admission is $18 for adults, $16 for children ages 2-18 and seniors. Children under 2 are free.

Details: pittsburghkids.org

‘Shantytown’

Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Co. brings “Shantytown: The Ballad of Fr. James Cox,” to the stage at 8 p.m. Saturday at Schenley Heights at Madison Arts Center in the Hill District. It’s the new home of the theatre company.

Pittsburgh resident Ray Werner, an author, musician, artist and Irish culturalist, who is also the grand marshal for Pittsburgh’s St. Patrick’s Day parade on Saturday, led a team of writers for the production, a musical account inspired by the life of the youngest Catholic pastor of the smallest and poorest parish in Pittsburgh in the 1930s.

Father Cox raised money to feed more than 3 million meals to the homeless and invented the concept of food stamps. He housed homeless people in the basement of his parish of St. Patrick’s in the Strip District, where most of the action takes place.

Tickets are $32.50 or $29 for seniors and students.

Details: pghplaywrights.org

Courtesy of James Howard Playwright Ray Werner (left) and composer Dwayne Fulton talk about “Shantytown. The Ballad of Fr. James Cox,” coming to the stage at Schenley Heights at Madison Arts Center in the Hill District.  

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