Cornwall St Pirans Day Parades

St Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall and his feast is widely observed throughout the county on March 5th each year. Interest in the saint grew as part of the Celtic Revival movement and there are numerous events associated with the festival today. Several towns have processions including Bodmin, Truro, Marazion, Launceston and Falmouth ; perhaps the best known are the celebrations at Penzance, Truro and Perranporth so the details of these are given here, though there are many more across the county. At Penzance there is a parade with hundreds of participants in the morning and on the Sunday nearest the 5th you can welcome St Piran himself on the beach at Perranporth, after which he processes to the village for a bite to eat. Truro’s parade starts at the Waterfall Gardens (off St George’s Road)  and finishes at High Cross with performances by schoolchildren, followed by a celebration of Cornish culture at the Cathedral . Expect lots of black and white Cornish flags and traditional Cornish food – lots of pubs and hotels put on a special menu for the day.

Helpful Hints

There are plenty of opportunities throughout the day to celebrate the festival – if you plan ahead you can probably get to three different ones for morning, afternoon and evening.

In 2025 St Piran’s Day is Wednesday 5th March.

Some places like Redruth and Perranporth hold their celebrations on a weekend near the day rather than always on 5th itself- in 2025 the 5th is a Wednesday so festivities should be Saturday 8th March for Redruth and Sunday 9th for Perranporth (to be confirmed and which was at 2pm in 2024), while other places are always on 5th itself (Truro is usually on 5th though if 5th is a Sunday, Truro moves to Saturday 4th instead). In addition, at Perranporth there’s sometimes a ceilidh at the Upper Deck pub and on the Friday evening St Piran arrives on the beach accompanied by his pipe band, ready for the parade on Sunday.

Also associated with the event was the annual World Pasty Championship held at the Eden Project, which was usually on the Saturday before St Pirans Day but this event has now ceased. For more info click here : http://www.edenproject.com/visit-us/whats-on/other-activities

Click here for Truro’s pages (Truro’s Parade is now at 1 pm) : https://www.visittruro.org.uk

and https://www.facebook.com/visittruro

and here for Redruth: https://www.facebook.com/DiscoverRedruth

and Perranporth: http://www.perranporthinfo.co.uk/st-piran.html

and here for more events around the county: https://gorsedhkernow.org.uk/st-pirans-events/