What is Game Day to you?

I was working on art for the Dandy Dons shop. It got me thinking of what game day is to everyone. Outside of the football itself. What are the rituals, the symbolism, the details, the smells, the sounds, the tastes?

Some of my happiest memories as a kid were with my father in his car heading to Pittodrie from Buckie. Chatting fitba with my Dad. Radio Scotland in the background. Just the two of us. Free from the step family from hell. The excitement of the game ahead. An evening game. The sun slowly setting somewhere about Keith on the way.

And then I started drawing what game day could be now. It began as a pie and a pint. But then it just kept going. In came North East products. Free product placement. I suspect the Brewdog guys are doing fine without it though.

Black Isle beer? Well I had a lovely pint and pizza in their bar in Inverness last summer and it was so good. And Aberdeen are more than the city. And the Black Isle, Eric Black. A wee nudge there, to ye know.

And there had to be a whisky, a Glenfiddich was my Dad’s favourite. And a few more pints, as I’m good at drawing pints. And, this bit made me laugh, ‘a glass of wine for the lady’, in Pub Landlord voice. It’s in there for the composition. Plenty women drink beer, plenty men drink wine. Red wine though. Had to be red.

And then San Miguel? That’s not north east… Okay, San Miguel is Spanish. From Madrid. So just to recap, that’s two Scottish bottles of beer, and one Madrid beer. So 2-1 then in bottles.

European game day, a still life.