Annual Oxford Pub Crawl Set for Spring Break Weekend

By Luke Little
Hottytoddy.com intern
lblittle@go.olemiss.edu

The early weeks of March possess a division of meanings for the community of Oxford. As the students begin to depart on their spring break travels, the streets become open and the Square returns to its more peaceful form. For local residents, they are celebrating a bit of a spring break of their own.

Since 2010, Oxford local Joe Dickey has been hosting the annual St. Paddy’s Pub Crawl. Every March on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, he congregates the community together to celebrate a day of good old fashioned drinking.

The Oxford St. Paddy’s Pub Crawl is set to kick off March 14 at Harrison’s on the Square, starting at 3 p.m. The route also includes Moe’s, Proud Larry’s, Round Table, the Library, Funky’s, Roosters, and Blind Pig, in that order and will rotate every hour. 

Dickey said the Pub Crawl began as what he felt was simply a lack of local celebration for the Irish holiday.

“We needed something fun to do on St. Paddy’s day,” he said. “It usually falls during the midweek, so the Saturday before is more convenient for everyone.”

As the Crawl’s 10th anniversary steadily approaches, Dickey expects the crowd to be larger than ever before. While the majority of the ‘Crawlers’ are local, word of mouth brings in people from all across the country to celebrate the event.

“The Crawl has really grown over the past few years. We started at around 15 people, then 100, and now we are expecting around 500 people.”

Dickey says that he has had people come down from Wisconsin, Iowa, Maryland, and now this year, Minnesota.

While the Pub Crawl itself is not sponsored by the bars it visits, Dickey says that some of them will offer giveaways or other prizes. He said that a few Irish alcohol companies such as Jameson, Bushmills, and Baileys will also be doing giveaways.

Costumes are strongly encouraged, and pins and cookies will be given out to the first 300 Crawlers.