London New Year's Day Parade 2016

So now it's time to get caught up on my blogging!  I try to keep everything in chronological order but I've decided that's just not going to work.  So I'll be posting about the current year and filling in with prior year stuff as we go along.  We're going to be jumping all over the place.  It will be fun!  Let's start with day 1... New Year's Day 2016 and the London New Year's Day Parade. 

We stayed in for New Year's Eve and watched the fireworks from our window.  The next day Matt was determined to go see the parade.  It was freezing cold and I was concerned about the crowds, but I didn't want to let him down.  So I begrudgingly went along and I'm so glad that I did.  We had a great day.

I'm amazed at how many people don't know about this parade.  We didn't know anything about it either until we saw it advertised on the side of a bus.  This was its 30 year anniversary!  It started in 1987 as The Lord Mayor of Westminster's Big Parade with about 2,000 participants and a 100,000 spectators.

This year there were 8,500 international participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators.  It's also shown on live TV.  The parade starts at Green Park at noon and this is where we decided to catch the parade. 

You can see from the photos that the crowds behind the barriers were quite thick but we walked down a bit from the Green Park tube and found ourselves a good viewing spot close to the barriers.  And Matt is tall so he could take photos over people's heads.  

There were dozens of marching bands from the United States which brought back such fun memories.  There were floats, acrobats, clowns, horses, Harleys and so much more. The crowd was loving it!

There were theatre productions and old cars.  The parade is massive and just goes on and on.  Every so often they would stop in front of a set of bleachers for a special performance.  Maybe we'll get bleacher seats next time. 

There were several large groups of cheerleaders that where so perky and happy you couldn't help but smile. I was so proud.  The little girl next to me turned to her mom and whispered with such awe "American Cheerleaders."  It was adorable. 

You definitely want to put this on your To Do list for next year.  It was so much fun and the perfect way to kick off the new year.  

Have you been to the London New Year's Day Parade?

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 You can find this review and many others in my
London Attraction Guide.