Lord Mayor's Parade

Today was the Lord Mayor's Parade in Oxford. The City Council announces this event as a day for residents and tourists to celebrate the history of Oxford. The Parade was led by John Goddard (left corner photo), the new Lord Mayor, and it ended at Bonn Square, which is just a two minute walk from where I live so I decided to see what this was all about. Quite often I like local traditions but to be honest this one didn't appeal to me very much. It was a bit of a mess, there was no atmosphere and the decorations at Bonn Square and Oxford Castle looked rather poor to me. I did like the idea of the Royal Airforce raising money on a day like this for cancer research and Help for Heroes but the parade itself just didn't have it for me. You would expect the city to do more to represent itself towards its residents and tourists, especially with the events taking place at the Oxford Castle/Bonn Square area, a part of the city centre which the City Council wants to transform into a modern, vibrant and stylish city quarter. Maybe it's something to think about today for the new Lord Mayor while he enjoys one of those cute cupcakes, which did look great!

P.s. for those of you who are interested, i've placed the Summer Eights 2010 photo's on Picasa, click on this link to see them.