Sunday 19 October 2014

Queen's University Homecoming 2014

I covered my first Queen's Homecoming weekend (and survived.

I started my day covering a touching dedication of the main house in the Kingston Student Housing Cooperative which will now be known as the Jim Wrong House.  His daughter, Rosemary, gave a beautiful speech about her father, his life and how proud he was to help found the co-op.



Rosemary Wrong with a portrait of her father, Jim Wrong

On leaving the Co-op I was surprised at how early the "celebrations" got started on the front lawns in the University District / Student Getto, although I probably shouldn't have been. I wandered around Aberdeen St and University Ave to get some shots of the students and alumni.






Next I headed to Richardson Stadium to cover the homecoming Gaels vs York Lions football game. And of course it started to rain - I only seem to shoot Gaels football in the rain.  There were a lot of media present and the fans came in full force, and costume, to cheer on the home town team.  The Gaels won 57-10.  I did make it to the centre of the half time "charge the field and beating of jackets" celebrations.  It was... unique and unreal. I got some good shots and came out of it with all my gear intact.



























The last thing I covered was the evening celebrations - The ReUnion Street Festival and the Aberdeen St parties.  I'm glad to have met up with a few other photojs, it made the street seem not as overwhelming.  The sanctioned street party seemed fun and the unsanctioned one was a bit insane. I did see a few people arrested. Other media people told me that it wasn't as bad a previous years, which I find scary to believe.













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