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Makin' Friends Not Millionaires at the Manchester Day Parade



FC United supporters who took part in the second annual Manchester Day Parade have declared the event a huge success and signalled their intentions to put on an even bigger show next year.

More than 100 of our fans of all ages were involved on the day carrying a physical representation of our club badge, waving flags, carrying banners and singing a few songs from our terrace repertoire through the city centre.

FC United’s Community Development and Promotions Officer, Vinny Thompson was delighted with the reaction the club received from the 70,000 people who took to the streets to watch the parade, as well as the 3,000 participants from 95 other community groups.

Vinny said: “All our volunteers were fantastic. They really enjoyed it. They were singing from start to finish and as we were going round people were cheering and smiling. Carrying the Makin’ Friends Not Millionaires banner at the front made it easy for people to understand what we’re about and when people heard the songs you could see they were realising that we’re not just anti-Glazer – we stand for much more than that.???

After hearing about the inaugural event last summer, Vinny decided to enter FC United into the parade. Once funding was received from the Arts Council and help from production company Walk The Plank, it took a team of seven volunteers, including Vinny and Board member Mike Sherrard, three months to turn a sketch on the back of a beer mat into the 12ft high float.

The team of volunteers also included supporters Michael Norton, Chris Boulderstone, Dave Keelan, Rob Carlin and Mark O’Rourke.

The club will be applying to take part in next year’s parade and hopes even more supporters will get involved. Vinny explained why he thought it was important for our club, one of only two sports clubs along with Abraham Moss Warriors, to be represented on the day: “We are Mancunians, we’re here to stay and we want to be involved in things like this because we want to be part of Manchester’s future.???



First Posted ~ 11:43 Thu 7 Jul 2011
News ID ~ 3630
Last Updated ~ 00:47 Tue 16 Feb 2021