By Alex Ortiz

In what’s being billed as the seventh largest gathering in human history, about 5 million people came out Friday to celebrate the Chicago Cubs’ first Major League Baseball World Series win since 1908.

Fans lined up along the parade route that ran from Wrigley Field to Grant Park to cheer on a motorcade of about 40 vehicles carrying players, their families and the Commissioner’s Trophy as they feted their defeat of the Cleveland Indians in Game Seven on Wednesday.

“Yeah it doesn’t even feel real,” said Moises Avila, a Cubs fan from south suburban Plainfield, who came to watch the parade with his son. “I’m a North Sider, so with the chance of the Cubs winning was just unbelievable. Very emotional.”

Fans like Avila were lined up hours before the start of the parade. They held up signs that read “World Champs” and “Goodbye Someday,” a reference to the centential-long wait to win another series some day in the future. 

While Cubs’ fans hearts have been broken many times before, their winning season proved to be a harbinger: The Cubs won 103 games during the 2016 season, the fifth most in franchise history and only the sixth 100-plus win season. This is also the third World Series title in franchise history; the other two coming in 1907 and 1908.