Backing The Blues
19th May 2016
When Leicester City won the title a couple of weeks ago, it was the greatest story in Premier League history. Being a Leicester fan myself, I was obviously ecstatic and if I’m totally honest it’s still not quite sunk in. The whole of Leicestershire has been “backing the blues” these past few weeks, with blue and white bunting becoming the norm outside shops and businesses. We’ve also got involved ourselves here at Cotes Mill.
To celebrate such an incredible achievement, Leicester had an open top bus parade on Monday to allow fans to be part of the jubilations. I, like many other delirious fans, travelled down to Leicester City Centre and the whole afternoon is something I’ll never forget.
We arrived around two and a half hours before the parade began and already it was busy. Unsurprisingly there was a party atmosphere, with flags, horns and banners everywhere to be seen. There were media outlets there from all over the world, I even got interviewed by a Danish television channel.
When the bus full of the players, staff and of course the Premier League trophy passed us, the noise was deafening and the feeling of euphoria was incredible. People were gaining vantage points from any available location, with bus stops, telephone boxes and traffic lights all being used by happy fans to see their heroes.
Image from https://rwh92.wordpress.com/tag/kasabian-victoria-park/
It was expected that around 100,000 fans would travel down to the parade, but in the end the number was estimated at around 240,000. A stage was set-up in Victoria Park, which is where the bus tour finished, to allow the players and manager Claudio Ranieri to come out and thank the fans. There was also a surprise performance by the band Kasabian, who are big Leicester fans, and there really was a carnival atmosphere. It was an incredible afternoon and something I won’t forget for many years to come.
