London New Years Day Parade - worth it?

[Puppybrain]

We’re going to London on New Years Day to meet friends for lunch. We’re flexible with time and I’ve just remembered that the New Year’s Day Parade will be on. We’d love to go and watch it, if there’s not too much queueing/ jostling/ pitching your tent the night before involved. So my question is: have any of you ever been to watch the LNYDP? Was it worth it? How long before it starts will we need to be there to get a reasonable view? Where is the best place to watch it from? Please don’t shoot me if my idea of ‘popping in on the parade’ on the way to lunch is completely naive. 😊

Hi, we went a few years ago admittedly, but it was great fun and the kids really enjoyed it. We managed to stand somewhere with a telephone cable or electric box thing on the pavement that the kids were able to climb on to sit and watch for a good view, but a bit like the London marathon if you've ever been up for that, it's not so crowd-lined that you can't see anything. We didn't go up ridiculously early. There were floats from all the boroughs and classic cars/bikers, but the best bits were the American university baton twirlers and marching bands as we'd never seen anything like that before. There was a great atmosphere and I don't think you'd have any problem combining it with meeting for lunch. Hope the weather is good for you.

Thank you lebowski, it sounds worth taking a little detour then!