All together now. Liverpool 08, its year as the Capital of Culture in Europe came to a close last night. Its easy to think back to key events over the past year, La Machine for example, and go “Ahhh that was great.” But when you’re standing in a crowd full of people who love Liverpool and thoroughly enjoyed 2008, well theres such an energy. They played this great video of the history of Liverpool. It featured farmers herding Superlambananas, all the various events through 2008 and a hilariously sad looking Borris Johnson cartoon figure. The 3 Graces looked amazing lit up, and they also had a lantern arrangement by the canal link which was really beautiful.
I wasn’t planning on being there in that location to get this photo. My plan was to cover the events at the Tate and head to Seacombe for fireworks photos. But I’ve got plenty of fireworks over the Mersey photos and in the back of my head there was a thought “What if its amazing?” So I stopped by around 2:30pm to take a look. Things were progressing and I revisited the best spot for photos to see them setting up lanterns. I started to question my trip to Seacombe, then changed my mind. But then I started to question things again and in the end, after nearly being carried away in a portaloo, decided to stay for dusk. That was my plan. Stay for dusk to get some motion in the sky, bit of light and the buildings lit up. I was then going to head to Seacombe for fireworks. By the time I had finished getting photos it was 5pm and only 30 minutes till the pre-show started. I decided that it would be silly to battle all the people arriving, battle traffic, and pay tunnel fees in the hope of a good photo across the Mersey so I stayed. I’m really glad I did. I’m really hoping the transition video is going to be available online because it was great to see.