St. Patrick's Day Parade and Shamrock fest will take over downtown Roanoke

ROANOKE (WSLS) Downtown Roanoke will be filled Saturday with people enjoying one of the biggest weekends of the year.

Stores and restaurants are still getting ready for the McDonald's St. Patrick's Day Parade and Shamrock festival. We stopped by Martin's where they were putting up tents, tables and chairs and stocking up the bar with beer.

It's all for their St. Patrick's Day Block Party which will go on for 15 hours straight from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The manager says the day of the parade is one of the busiest since opening in 2005.

"We do the block party which is obviously not normal for us. We go out to the street and we have 12 bands all day long. Lots of great Irish foods, Shepard pie, corned beef and cabbage. Green beer of course. it's a big festive event, everybody's wearing green," said Jason Martin, the general manager at Martin's Downtown.

It's only a $10 admission for all day access to the party. And don't forget WSLS 10 will bring you live coverage of the parade this weekend.

Daytime Blue Ridge's Natalie Faunce and John Carlin will host the event in downtown Roanoke. You can also catch Storm Team 10 along the parade route. Our live coverage kicks off at 11 a.m.