It’s that time of the year for everything green and Irish. Yup, Celtic Festival is just around the corner as well as the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. The Celtic Festival kicks off tomorrow with a free, family-friendly event at Vancouver’s Village on False Creek. St. Patrick’s Day is on Saturday, March 17 this year, and the annual parade is the following Sunday, March 18.

The parade is a popular, large-scale event, so a number of roads will be blocked off to traffic, including buses, so that means a number of reroutes. For specifics on the reroutes, visit TransLink Alerts & Advisories (updated with parade info next week), or call 604.953.3333. Here are the basics if you’re planning to drive downtown on Saturday or take transit to the festivities.

St. Patrick’s Parade day street closures and bus reroutes

On Sunday, March 18, 2012, these streets will be closed to vehicle traffic:

From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Howe Street–from Drake Street to the Granville Street Bridge
• All southbound traffic on Granville Street Bridge and Granville Street (except buses)–from Drake Street to West 5th Avenue

From 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Howe Street–from Drake to Georgia
• Georgia Street–from Hornby to Seymour
• Granville Street–from Georgia to Pender

The parade will result in road closures for these bus routes: 4, 5, 6, 10, 14, 17, 20, 50, 135, 240 and C23.

Due to the high volume of people attending the parade, it’s always advisable to plan in additional time to commute downtown and back. If you have a smartphone, use nb.translink.ca to see the location of your bus. That way, you don’t have to wait at your stop longer than necessary.

Enjoy St. Paddy’s Day, everyone! Oh, and remember to wear something green. It’s the thing to do!