A festival of all things Irish on Saturday reached its crescendo with the official St Patrick's Day parade through the Brisbane CBD.

Traditionally held on the Saturday before St Patrick's Day every year, the Brisbane parade attracted about 800 participants, with thousands more lining the city streets.

Festival co-ordinator Siobhan McDonnell said it came at the end of a distinctly Irish few weeks in the Queensland capital.

"We had Sinead O'Connor playing here last week, we had Sharon Shannon, who's a great singer and accordion player, playing here a couple of weeks ago at O'Malley's, and we had the Ireland (World Cup cricket) game at the Gabba," she said.

"There has been a lot that has built this into such a big celebration for the Irish community."

With the Irish cricketers exceeding all expectations at the World Cup, the mood at this year's St Patrick's Day celebrations was even more buoyant than usual, even if it was an English game at which they were excelling.

The mood was also helped, no doubt, by a fair quantity of Guinness.

"Obviously, cricket's not a big sport in Ireland, it's ranked pretty low in our national pastimes, but the Irish love a celebration and getting behind their own," Ms McDonnell said.

"People who wouldn't even look at cricket before had a chance to support our country in a World Cup tournament.

"It's been a really good month – we've had a lot tie in that we may not have necessarily organised, but it's really added to the colour of the festival."

The St Patrick's Day celebrations were also a fillip for the struggling Queensland Irish Club, which went into voluntary administration last month.

On Saturday, those troubles were drowned out by the sights and sounds of the year's best craic.

And Ms McDonnell said it was not just the Elizabeth Street venue reaping the rewards – there was enough Irish luck to go around.

"It is a huge injection for the city, because there has been a bit of a switch in the hospitality trade, it's moved further out towards the Valley," she said.

"So it's good for the Brisbane pubs to get this sort of injection. This is everyone's massive weekend for the year, where they can show what they can do."