It starts in the Glebe, even before you get to Lansdowne.
Face painters…street musicians…buskers. Bank Street is set to get you ready for the biggest party in town.
The smell of barbecue is wafting through the air from outside Whole Foods where sausages are grilling and the staff is pumped-up for the overall vibe that’s already pulsing around the site. You feel it as you head down Marché towards Milestones and Jack Astor’s or Exhibition Way towards Joey and Local to join the hundreds of fans on patios getting a head-start on festivities.
About two hours before game time, you hear the echo of live music from somewhere inside TD Place.
It’s a tailgate party in the Budweiser King Club, located in the SW corner of the stadium adjacent to where Frank Clair’s statue keeps watch over the field. The full stadium isn’t open yet, but hundreds pour in to rock with their buds and, in some cases, down a few Buds as the band plays on. The place will be packed by the time the players take to the field for warmups one-hour before kick-off and that’s the cue for all stadium gates to open and for everybody to roll-in.
As the clock winds down to game time and the seats and gathering spaces fill with fans, otherwise known as #RNation … you feel the energy.
It’s hard to describe.
You know the players are getting ready for their big entrance and you know you’re going to be shouting for them and you know it’s about to get loud …very loud.
Maybe that’s it.
Anticipation of a massive tribal experience where everybody is feeling it and bringing it. You get carried away by that feeling and, in-between games, you crave it. It’s addictive.
Check out the REDBLACKS complete 2015 home schedule here.
