A 22 year release across 12 days

As some moments in your life come to an end, you know that they will be with you for the rest of your life. For me, the parade on Sunday 31st May was one of those moments.

1.5 million people poured onto the Islington streets. A truly joyous and multicultural event, the perfect snapshot of what makes London one of the greatest cities in the world. From the moment the final whistle blew in the Everton vs Manchester City match, the emotion only continued to build, culminating in a parade that will probably leave many Arsenal fans a little less interested in the World Cup.

*A sea of Red and White (and bruised bananas)*

The day started at the Clissold Park Tavern. Meeting friends at 09:00, a comfortable 90 minutes later than the 07:30 meet the day before. We had a good view of the build-up, fans and eventual trophy bus as it went past the north-east part of the 9 km route. I say the view was good, but as the bus passed by, the air was thick with red smoke from flares, limiting visibility, but it hardly mattered. The atmosphere was incredible. Once the bus passed us at around 15:30, the day didn't end; it simply became something different. The crowds stayed, music continued, and the streets turned into one enormous celebration, almost like a scaled-down Notting Hill Carnival. I loved every minute of it.

Another thing I had no visibility of was that my camera was set to JPG. I always shoot RAW, so I’m not sure how this happened, but I only realised after reviewing images the next day in Lightroom. There was certainly a lot less headroom for editing, but compared to other user errors I’ve made recently, I don’t think it’s too bad.

So that draws an end to the football season. While it wasn’t a season of the Invincibles, the balance of high and low moments has probably made this my favourite ever season. Not one I will be forgetting any time soon.

The Parade

Round the outside