Yes its that time of year again when we all say never again, the 8mile walk to Barnett’s Park is a long one but surely it becomes easier when bands are playing to a high standard and are all enjoying this glorious day.
As per usual there are loads of Scottish bands that make the trip across to pair up with lodges to march the entire route and soak up the atmosphere, bands like: Cambuslang Britannia, Townhead Young Defenders, Pride of Govan & Pride of Larkhall just to name a few of the many loyalists bands from our neighbours across the sea.
With the mass numbers of local bands from the Belfast area and lodges hiring bands from all the 6 counties of Ulster to participate in the biggest parade of the loyalist calendar it’s a fantastic site to see and this year some of the well known bands unveiled new uniforms.
A band like the South Belfast Young Conquers and the Shankill Protestant Boys wore their new uniforms to get the crowds talking and from many accounts the comments where good which is always good to hear and it’s good to see bands breaking away from their usual colours to brighter ones that catch are more eye catching.
Burger stalls, ice cream vans, street traders all throng to the Belfast parade as thousands of people enjoy the 2 hour parade, the weather in the morning was a bit dull with patches of light rain but thankfully after the lunchtime break the clouds moved on and the sun came out and it turned into a very pleasant evening.
With this change of weather it also lifted the sprits of the bands and Orangemen as they made the homeward journey back to their respective districts.
Our performance on the day was very good for any band to play to a high standard on such a long parade is hard to do but we kept it going all day and overall a good day out for all our members, I’m very pleased to announce that on the day our band was awarded with a ‘Best Blood & Thunder’ prize which was donated by out local Number 6 District.
This really pleased me and all my band members and we would like to thank the District for this very kind gesture and it’s very much appreciated and once again many thanks for this award and it shall take pride of place in our band hall.
Today we walked with 19 side drummers, 30 fluters, 4 bass drummers, 4 cymbal boys, colour party of 9, a side walker and a drum major.
Below are a selection of photographs and video clips of the band in action.
