Airlines and ferry services are reporting record bookings for the St Patrick's Day celebrations which begin in Dublin tomorrow night with a street performance at College Green.
Extra inter-city trains and DART services will cater for the thousands of people joining the capital's four-day celebrations.
Some 22 overseas bands will join the Dublin parade on Friday, which will be attended by the patron of the St Patrick's Festival 2000, the President, Mrs McAleese.
The parade begins at 10 a.m. from St Patrick's Cathedral on Patrick Street and continues to Granby Row. Bord Failte said footage of the parade would be distributed to 350 public broadcasting stations in the United States.
It will include street theatre performers from Barcelona and 13 professional theatrical pageants which bring together community groups from around the State.
The parade will be followed by a "monster Ceili" at St Stephen's Green North from 2.30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
A pyrotechnic spectacle with 15 tonnes of fireworks will take place from 8 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. next Sunday along the north quays from the Custom House to the Point.
Thursday night's street performance at College Green between 8 p.m. and 9.15 p.m. features Els Comediants from Barcelona and the Macnas group from Galway.
The British media personality Chris Evans will host his TFI Friday TV show from the capital, while the Russian space station Mir will make an appearance over Ireland during the festival.
Aer Lingus said its passenger figures are up by one-fifth on last year. The airline will carry more than 109,500 customers this weekend, and flights on London routes are almost completely booked for tomorrow and Friday, a spokesman said.
"It's exceptionally busy with the increased traffic due to the combination of St Patrick's weekend and the Cheltenham races coming on top of one another," said a company spokesman.
The airline expects to carry 59,000 people between Ireland and Britain, and 21,000 between Ireland the US.
Ryanair has put on 25 extra flights and says it expects to carry more than 150,000 passengers between Ireland and Britain during the holiday period.
Irish Ferries said it will carry 21,500 passengers on its Irish Sea crossings over the weekend. "It's a bumper year and a lot more people are travelling because St Patrick's Day falls close to a weekend," said a spokeswoman.
Extra inter-city services will run on Thursday, with extra DART services on Friday. A special timetable of services during the festival is available from all Iarnrod Eireann stations.
In the US, Ms Hillary Clinton will present an Irish Heritage Award from Irish America Magazines to the Riverdance show which will be playing in New York. The show's producer, Ms Moya Doherty, and composer Mr Bill Whelan will receive the award.
Visit St Patrick's Festival 2000 at The Irish Times Website:
www.ireland.com/events/st.patricks/