London New Year’s Day Parade 2006

I went to the London New Year’s Day Parade for the first time today. It was extreemly overcast and a tad bit cold, and it rained a bit.

Despite all of that it was still a really fun couple of hours! Some of the elements of the parade were just, well, poor. But on the whole it was quite good, mostly due to the contribution of our American cousins. As much as it pains me to say so, the American bands and performers really were, on the whole, head and shoulders above the homegrown talent.

The sound of the percussion on the majority of the marching bands was quite amazing, the complex rhythms and tempos were just spellbinding. The quality of the musical performances were great, all the more so because the performers were moving whilst performing.

The inflated characters were quite interesting, and the classic vehicles were quite nice as well. I would recommend that if you haven't been to the parade that you try it next year. A word of caution though, get there at least an hour before it is due to commence if you want to have any chance of seeing whats going on.