Arthur's Day Street Celebration!

Like it or hate it you have to admit that Arthur's Day is a brilliantly successful marketing gimmick. For those of you outside of Ireland, Arthur's Day is a day in celebration of Arthur Guinness, the creator of that famous black beverage from this side of the water. Quite simply, at 17.59 crowds gather in the street with a pint in hand to rise the drink aloft and proclaim "TO ARTHUR!". 
It began a few years ago to celebrate the 250th year of Guinness and took off from there, becoming a yearly event. The pub shown at the start of this advert is just beside my barbershop!

Some big name bands play venues all around the city and, to give the massive corporation it's due, they donate all the proceeds from these gigs to a charity that helps start-up companies and charity businesses. 
This year we stayed open during the celebration and as the day progressed we could see them setting up for the celebration outside of the barbershop window. There are at least 6 pubs on our street so the buzz started early on. It began with a few chairs outside, expanded to a whole green area (for some 'Living Streets' festival?) and slowly a few people took a seat and sipped a drink:

Now I must stress that this is RIGHT outside the window of the shop. I took these with my phone while kneeling on our waiting bench inside the shop window. Time went on and the crowds began to gather and by 17.30 we had to take the latch off the door to stop random merry people wandering in! 17.59 stuck and a gentleman dressed as Arthur called time and the cheer went up!:

We all kept snipping on for another hour with the hubbub of the throng filtering in, and then closed up shop and squeezed our way out the door! That's one thing I love about the shop's location - every day brings a different view!
- BE