I’ve been to two protest BLM protest and no kings day celebration protest. BLM protest was intimidating at first because I Parked close to the event and police had us surrounded and were gasing us, but that ended with them putting their shield and bats down as symbolic way of ending hostilities. No Kings day was way more chill and no confrontation with authorities that I witnessed but some happened before I got there, other than that it was mostly talking to people and expressing yourself in public.
There’s fun stories
Back in the day I participated in poll tax protests (fuck Thatcher) and later in some Reclaim the Streets protests.
The poll tax ones were quite tense. What with that and the miners there was a lot of political anger at the time.
The latter were much more fun and often had a chill family feel to them. Such a mix of people from families with small kids to crusties to clubbers with kick ass sound systems. Occasionally you’d see a couple of the “fuck a copper” brigade but they were mostly chill.