The Arsenal Parade – Were you there?

On Sunday 31st May 2026, an estimated 1 million Arsenal fans packed the streets of North London to truly paint the down red and to pay tribute to the players for bringing the Premier League trophy back to were it belongs. Did you go?

I must admit, I really wasn’t quite prepared for the sheer enormity of the whole thing. I remember going to the parades for both the FA Cup wins in 2014 and 2015 and although I was well aware it was going to be a lot busier than that, I definitely understated things a bit! I had this plan that we were going to watch a bit of the parade here and then walk round to the other side of Islington and watch it again there…

What actually happened was very different as we spent about an hour trying to find the best vantage point that we could, only to admit defeat and just settle for a place where we were about 10 rows back and could see reasonably well!! I’m sure it’s been said a million times already, but wow! This club is absolutely enormous. The parade itself was mad, with people everywhere, but it was the attempt to get back to Euston after the bus had passed by that was the real eye opening bit. Every street, every park, was just packed with Arsenal shirts and unfortunately that meant that pretty much every tube station was closed so we had to walk a long way in the London sunshine to get back for our train (which we obviously missed!).

I’ll have to admit, on the day, I really wasn’t feeling it. I’ll probably feel a deep sense of regret about that for years to come (I already feel that way a bit) – as it was a moment in Arsenal history that I was apart of – but I can’t help the way I feel. The night before was a gut punch of epic proportions and that takes a while to get over. I think I’m getting there now.

Even in my sombre mood, I could still appreciate the sheer size of this football club as an institution though. Feels good to be part of something so huge and to know that when we have our downs, we’re truly part of thousands who are feeling that and then to have our highs, we can all celebrate together as well. Proud to be a Gooner.

Let’s hope we’re back there again next year with that same trophy and maybe a couple more…