An estimated 240,000 people took to the streets for the parade of Leicester City, Premier League champions. The Leicester-based crowd management and event security contractors Showsec mounted the operation for what was billed as the biggest event in Leicester’s history.
As a comparison more than 35,000 fans turned out to celebrate Leicester winning the Championship two years ago when Showsec had 150 staff on duty for that victory parade. On May 16, 2016, there were more than 550 staff deployed to cover the route from Jubilee Square to Victoria Park where the celebrations were rounded off in style with a surprise performance from the club’s famous fans, rock group Kasabian.
With Leicester City Council, Showsec worked on the planning and delivery of the event, a process which began to take shape as City got closer and closer to winning the Premier League.
Joe Milner, Showsec’s East Midlands Area Manager, said: “It was truly incredible. It seemed like the whole of Leicester was having a party. As a company which has its Head Office in Leicester, it was an extremely proud moment to be a part of another great occasion for the city.
“In the past couple of years, we have had City’s promotion parade, the Kasabian concert in Victoria Park and the burial of King Richard III. The size of this celebration though seemed like all three of those events had been rolled into one big night. As well as being a test of our operational delivery, it was fantastic profile for the Company to play such prominent part in an event which was beamed live nationally and attracted considerable interest globally as well.”
Showsec drew on their operational experience from those events, as well as delivering victory parades for other clubs such as Manchester City. After weeks of planning and preparation with the city council’s events team, the operation on the day began 12 hours before the start of the parade, so that everything was in place once the four open-top buses arrived at Jubilee Square.
“There were challenges posed by the size of the turnout, particularly in terms of keeping the parade moving along the route to schedule and the movement of people through the streets of the city centre and then up London Road to Victoria Park,” added Milner.
“But the successful delivery of the operation was down to two important factors. They were the good nature of the crowd and the tremendous co-operation between ourselves, the council’s events team and Leicestershire Police.
“Leicester City’s title triumph was a remarkable team effort, and this fantastic event was the result of another one by everyone who was involved. We have had already some excellent feedback that it was an event befitting such an historic occasion for the city of Leicester.”
