#mad friday

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Emergency services endured a busy night as many celebrated finishing work for the Christmas break with a booze-fuelled blowout

Canal Street on the biggest office Christmas party night of the year (Photo: Joel Goodman)

Described by some as the "nightmare before Christmas", 'Mad Friday' refers to the last Friday before Christmas and is usually one of the busiest nights of the year for pubs, clubs as well as the emergency services. The term was adopted from the phrase 'Black Friday', most likely to avoid confusion with the American shopping phenomena, which takes places the following Friday after Thanksgiving, in both the US and the UK. With millions of revellers expected to take to the streets to celebrate the beginning of the festive break, following office parties and end of term celebrations, precautions are taken by the emergency services with Greater Manchester police doubling the usual number of officers. In 2013, sales of alcohol in pubs, bars and restaurants soared by 114% in comparison to an average Friday. I wanted to capture the essence of the festivities in my home town, Accrington. Choosing to photograph the event, rather than being a part of it offered me an alternative perspective of the town and how the people alter their attitude and behaviour as the night progressed. Although, photographing in Accrington was not as successful as I anticipated, it was a last minute decision to travel to Manchester in hope of finding some more interesting shots. To begin with, I decided to photograph the same points at certain time periods, this would then provide my viewers and I with a clear comparisons of what the town looks like during in the day and the night. I chose to visit these various places at approximately 3-hour time slots, this would provide the shots with different lighting and variation of subject matter, in regards to people.