The highlight of the festivities starts at 12 noon with the annual balloon release. The theme this year is The Gathering, which emcourages anyone of Irish descent to pay a visit back home to the county, town and/or village of their ancestry. More details on the parade line up will be released over the coming weeks. Everyone loves a parade – but especially the Irish. Birmingham’s St Patricks Parade goes back a very long way, originally started by the community to reinforce their identity and ensure their strong links with the home country. The parade returned to its original route Digbeth in 1996 and has since grown enormously in stature.