London New Years Day Parade, 1st January 2024

At 00:01 this morning I was stood on London Bridge doing my best to make photographs in what really was a particularly uninspiring environment. I’ve gone to London Bridge over the years to document the celebration as the new year comes into being, and have made some decent images, but today felt very different, even though there was a crowd to work with, the energy just wasn’t there. Maybe they felt there wasn’t much to celebrate, just going through the motions.

After not enough sleep on arriving home at around 2am I left the house at 8:30ish, arriving at Park Lane just in time to begin photographing the preparations for the New Years Day Parade. In 2020 I wrote this blog post about documenting New Years morning and day, and determined that the Parade was underwhelming. This year however, I had the opportunity to walk in the parade itself, not documenting from the outskirts behind the crowds.

This was thanks to my relationship with the Costa Rican community who were dancing in the parade for the first year ever, who kindly allocated me a wristband. I made plenty of photographs of them as they made their way along the procession route, but also had time to myself to document whatever caught my interest.

Arriving early meant I was able to walk around the different groups including the guest marching bands who had joined from The States, and which offered the best imagery of the day.

At points I found myself in between various groups of the parade, with no one in front or behind me, just me and the crowd, which was a touch unsettling at times. People would reach out for high fives or fist bumps as if I were some celebrity, which was funny, but feeling all those eyes on me, and knowing I was featuring in all of their footage, or getting in the way of them and ruining their photo, was an interesting vibe.

I was able to make some portraits, and a few other frames I like, but hopefully I’ll be able to join in the parade again for 2025, where I know what changes I will make in order to come away with some better images.