What an incredible and unforgettable pre-season trip. Starting off in Philadelphia arriving straight into the Bees in the U.S. first night gathering, organised by the wonderful Brentford events team at McGillans Ale House. What a night, so cool to see several hundred U.S. based Bees fans as well as the fellow touring Bees enjoying the electric atmosphere and being able to meet some of the players and legends, such as Marcus Gayle who signed our shirts. Plus to get to chat with out brilliant directors Phil Giles and Preety Shetty as well as many other folks from the management team.
At the game, the next day it was so cool to meet with so many U.S. based Bees from all over the East Coast at the ‘Tailgate’ car park gathering including one guy whose name was actually Brent Ford! It was great to take part in the U.S. sporting tradition where the fans park up and literally run a boozy picnic and BBQ, including games such as ‘Corn Hole’ (bean bag throwing with holes in targets, apparently an international sport), so fun and friendly and a perfect way to avoid buying $18 cans of beer in the ground! The Fulham tailgate party was parked nearby, and we did our best to be as cheeky as possible and teach our U.S. Bees the right way to sing polite songs to them. The game didn’t go our way but that didn’t spoil the fun of being at the stunning Lincoln Financial Feld stadium home of the Eagles.
The next day we took the train to Washington for 2 nights and ironically staying at The Hive, a newly opened boutique hotel, clearly, they knew we were coming! We flew into Atlanta from Washington for the game against Brighton landing in time to get to the Mercedes Stadium home of the Falcons for the Tailgate gathering linking up with friends from the Philadelphia leg of the tour, outstanding fun and friendships continued. The U.S. Bees really were quite knowledgeable about the team and the history of Brentford, so good to see folks from across the pond really loving our club and the Premier League. We left the next day and missed the game against Villa in New Jersey but with so many incredible memories and new U.S. Bee friendships some of whom have already made the trip across the pond to gather with us in the Orchard Lounge to watch a game, already can’t wait for the next pre-season. Special thanks to the Brentford events team for the brilliant pre-match parties COYB!
