One of the greatest things about Edinburgh is there is always something going on. Whether it be a sporting event (marathon etc) a music concert, a Fringe Festival (which incidentally is the largest performing arts festival in the world), a moon or kilt walk or whatever but today we had the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Carnival Parade 2015.

Specifically this was the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Carnival Parade and it’s one of those things I’ve been meaning to get round to seeing for a couple years but never quite made it but now Liv isn’t working weekends and I didn’t have any weddings or other work we popped into town to check it out.

Parking is always one of the biggest challenges in Edinburgh so I parked in Grassmarket close to Edinburgh College of Art and then we walked through Castle Terrace to the west end of Princes Street. The parade was to go from the top of the Mound and walk the length of Princes Street, turn back on itself then go into Princes Street Gardens.

Big crowds. Edinburgh is busy at the best of times but when there’s an event the crowds get really big. The crowds you can see above or almost Fringe-esque type crowds.

There were quite a few drumming acts like this and they are always great to see. Some are a bit more lively than others but this group were great and they really got involved with the crowd which was great.

So that’s it for the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Carnival Parade 2015. It was colourful, loud and really great. The acts looked great and it’s just a shame we didn’t check out the events in Princes Street Gardens.

During the parade my daughter was quite upset at some of the noise and it was just starting to spot with rain so we popped into McDonalds for lunch, came out and it had clearly rained but wasn’t raining. We crossed into the Gardens and then it absolutely chucked it down so I had to leave my family under a tree, run back to the car and rescue them (nothing worse than a soaking wet toddler, trust me!).