This week’s St. Patrick’s Day party at Brannigan’s will be an extra special one, as it marks the 10th year the Irish bar and restaurant in downtown Kalispell has thrown a party in honor of the holiday.
The Irish bar and restaurant first opened in Kalispell in November 2012. This year the bar is bringing back its outdoor tent, to expand activities on the premise beyond the building’s interior and porch. A stage will be set up and 10 different live musical acts are scheduled to perform across the two-day celebration.
The tent had taken a hiatus due to COVID-19, but Randi Long, an assistant to co-owner Karla Levengood-Swank, said it’s coming back this year amid popular demand.
“Everybody’s been asking, can you bring the tent back?” Long said.
Another slight change is a third day of celebrations this year, beginning Thursday night with a VIP party upstairs at the pub. That exclusive celebration, for sponsors and supporters of the bar, will start at 7 p.m., and the remainder of the bar will be open for business as usual.
The bar plans to be open at its regular time of 11 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on Friday, March 17. The first musical act, Chance Cole, takes the stage at 12:30 p.m. Laura Ferguson follows up at 2 p.m., and then the Fetveit Brothers take the stage at 4:30 p.m. Groove Riders will begin playing at 6:30 p.m., and the Tommy Edwards Band starts at 8:30 p.m.
On Saturday, Randy Marshall will start playing at 12:30 p.m., followed by the Mike Murray Trio at 2:30 p.m., Ticket Sauce at 4:30 p.m. Flat Black starts playing at 6:30 p.m., and Chain Reaction closes out the lineup beginning at 8:30 p.m.
Emcees will be Kenny Bowling and Randy Marshall, and both days of celebrations will feature a costume contest, and occasional bagpipes. Tickets are $10, and Brannigan’s will be selling food, including pasties, and a corned beef and cabbage special with fixings for $15. Long said the bar will easily go through hundreds of pounds of corned beef in its efforts to keep attendees fed. While she didn’t have an estimate for the amount of Guinness staff will pour, it’s expected to be a sizeable quantity.
They’ll have other holiday appropriate beer on hand, too, including Smithwick’s Irish red ale, Iron Horse Brewery’s Irish Death dark ale, Harp Lager, and more. The bar also has 11 different Irish whiskeys on hand.
For people interested in giving back, Brannigan’s has partnered this year with Flathead Food Bank, and the food bank will be on hand to accept donations from anyone in a giving mood.
