Notting Hill Carnival

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox recurring event

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean Carnival event that has taken place in London since 1966<ref name="Enterprises Trust">"About us", Notting Hill Carnival '13, London Notting Hill Enterprises Trust. Template:Webarchive.</ref> on the streets of the Notting Hill area of Kensington, over the August Bank Holiday weekend.<ref>BBC – 1Xtra – Black History: "What happened in 1965". Retrieved 17 March 2012.</ref>

It is led by members of the British Caribbean community, and attracts around two million people annually, making it one of the world's largest street festivals, the largest in Europe, and a significant event in British African Caribbean and British Indo-Caribbean culture.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="culture">Dabydeen, Professor David (August 2010), "Notting Hill Carnival", Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick. Retrieved 30 August 2015.</ref> In 2006, the UK public voted the Notting Hill Carnival onto a list of icons of England.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Carnival traditionally commences on the Saturday with Panorama, a competition between steelpan bands. Sunday is designated family and children's day, with a shorter parade route for young people. The main adult parade takes place on Monday.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Notting Hill Carnival represents the "five disciplines of carnival": masquerade, calypso, soca, steelpan, and sound systems.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="nhcarnivalprogramme">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

History

The origin of Notting Hill Carnival can be traced to a number of roots.<ref>Jamie Clifton, "Things You Never Knew About Carnival", Vice, 21 August 2014.</ref>

A "Caribbean Carnival" was held on 30 January 1959 in St Pancras Town Hall as a response to the problematic state of race relations at the time; the UK's first widespread racial attacks, the Notting Hill race riots in which 108 people were charged,<ref name="travis">Template:Cite news</ref> had occurred the previous year. This was organised by the Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones, often described as "the mother of the Notting Hill Carnival"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in her capacity as editor of influential black newspaper The West Indian Gazette, and directed by Edric Connor. It showcased elements of a Caribbean carnival in a cabaret style. It featured the Mighty Terror singing the calypso "Carnival at St Pancras", The Southlanders, Cleo Laine, the Trinidad All Stars and Hi–fi steel bands dance troupe, finishing with a Caribbean Carnival Queen beauty contest and a Grand Finale Jump-Up by West Indians who attended the event.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The first outside event in Notting Hill was in August 1966, a hippie London Free School-inspired festival organised by Rhaune Laslett,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Davina Hamilton, "'Yes, This Is Notting Hill Carnival's 50th Year'" ("Debora Alleyne De Gazon, creative director of the London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprises Trust, clears up the confusion about the year the event began"), The Voice, 28 August 2016.</ref> who was not aware of the indoor events when she first raised the idea. This festival was a more diverse Notting Hill event to promote cultural unity. A street party for neighbourhood children turned into a carnival procession when Russell Henderson's steel band (who had played at the earlier Claudia Jones events) went on a walkabout.<ref name="Younge 2002">Template:Cite news</ref> By 1970 "the Notting Hill Carnival consisted of 2 music bands, the Russell Henderson Combo and Selwyn Baptiste's Notting Hill Adventure Playground Steelband and 500 dancing spectators."<ref>Michael La Rose, Template:Cite web, July 2004. Submitted to Joseph Charles Media, publishers of Soca News, for August 2004 Notting Hill Carnival edition of Carnival Groove.</ref>

Leslie "Teacher" Palmer, who was director from 1973 to 1975, is credited with "getting sponsorship, recruiting more steel bands, reggae groups and sound systems, introducing generators and extending the route."<ref>Peter Timothy, "Visionaries, Pioneers, Apostles and Healers: The Contribution of Migrants from Trinidad and Tobago to the Development of Black Britain, 1948 to 1986". European Conference on Arts & Humanities, 2013, Proceedings, p. 5. Quoting Tom Vague, 50 Years of Carnival 1959–2009, London: HISTORY talk, 2009, p. 22.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Portobello Film Festival.</ref> He encouraged traditional masquerade, and for the first time in 1973 costume bands and steel bands from the various islands took part in the street parade,<ref>Ofosu, Natasha (17 August 2012), "Notting Hill Carnival pioneers to be honoured", Soca News. Template:Webarchive.</ref> alongside the introduction of stationary sound systems, as distinct from those on moving floats,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which, as Alex Pascall has explained, "created the bridge between the two cultures of carnival, reggae and calypso."<ref>Carnival (2014), p. 290.</ref> "Notting Hill Carnival became a major festival in 1975 when it was organised by a young teacher, Leslie Palmer."<ref name=CinE /> The carnival was also popularised by live radio broadcasts by Pascall on his daily Black Londoners programme for BBC Radio London.

Duke Vin, full name Vincent George Forbes,<ref name="telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref> is credited as being a co-founder of Notting Hill Carnival, having brought the first sound system to the United Kingdom in 1955 when he was a stowaway on a ship from Jamaica to the United Kingdom,<ref name="burrell">Template:Cite news</ref> and brought what is thought to be the very first sound system to the Notting Hill Carnival in 1973, which paved the way for the many sound systems that operate at the carnival today.<ref name="hibbert">Template:Cite news</ref> Duke Vin became a legend in Ladbroke Grove and had a huge influence on the popularisation of reggae and ska in Britain, and played at Notting Hill Carnival with his sound system, "Duke Vin the Tickler's",<ref name="golbach">Template:Cite news</ref> every year from the year it was founded until his death in 2012.<ref name="salewicz">Template:Cite news</ref>

Emslie Horniman's Pleasance (in the Kensal Green district of the area), has been the carnival's traditional starting point.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="unlike.net">Template:Cite web</ref> Among the early bands to participate were Ebony Steelband and Metronomes Steelband.<ref name=CinE>"How Carnival was developed in Britain?", Carnival in Education. Template:Webarchive.</ref> As the carnival had no permanent staff and head office, the Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill, run by another Trinidadian, Frank Crichlow, came to function as an informal communication hub and office address for the carnival's organisers.<ref name="Cohen1993">Template:Cite book</ref>

The 1976 carnival was marred by riots.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">Template:Cite news</ref> During this period, there was considerable press coverage of the disorder, which some felt took an unfairly negative and one-sided view of the carnival. There were calls from politicians and the press for the event to be banned or relocated.<ref name="Younge 2002" /> Prince Charles was one of the few establishment figures who supported the event.<ref name="Younge 2002" /> Leila Hassan campaigned for Arts Council England to recognise the Notting Hill Carnival as an art form.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Since 1978 the national Panorama competition is held on the Saturday preceding the carnival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Concerns about the size of the event resulted in London's then mayor, Ken Livingstone, setting up a Carnival Review Group in 2000 to look into "formulating guidelines to safeguard the future of the Carnival".<ref>Mayor of London – Notting Hill Carnival Review Group. Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> An interim report by the review resulted in a change to the route in 2002. When the full report was published in 2004, it recommended that Hyde Park be used as a "savannah" (an open space to draw crowds away from residential areas),<ref name="GLAReview">Notting Hill Carnival: A Strategic Review, Greater London Authority, June 2004.</ref> though the proposal of such a move attracted concerns, including that the Hyde Park event might overshadow the original street carnival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="IndyTimeline">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2003 the Notting Hill Carnival was run by a limited company, the Notting Hill Carnival Trust Ltd. A report by the London Development Agency on the 2002 Carnival estimated that the event contributed around £93 million to the London and UK economy.<ref name=LDA>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Mayor of London's Carnival Review Group's report (published in 2004)<ref name="GLAReview" /> led to the parades taking a circular rather than linear route, but a recommendation to relocate the event in Hyde Park has been resisted.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="IndyTimeline" />

In 2015 there was controversy when the Carnival Trust charged journalists £100 to cover the event, and demanded copies of all work produced relating to the event within three weeks of the end of the Carnival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The National Union of Journalists organised a boycott of the event.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2016 the charge remained, but in June 2017 the Carnival's new event management team introduced a revised media policy, with no request for any accreditation fees.<ref>"New Media Policy and Official Media Centre at Carnival", Press release, Notting Hill Carnival Guide, 16 June 2017. Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On both days at the 2017 carnival, a minute's silence was observed in tribute to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, with many carnival-goers wearing "green for Grenfell".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>"Notting Hill Carnival: Thousands enjoy sound, samba and sun", BBC News, 29 August 2017.</ref>

The 2020 carnival was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> although free live-streamed events were shown online across four channels.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 18 June 2021 it was announced that the 2021 Carnival would not take place either, due to "ongoing uncertainty and COVID-19 risk".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2022 Notting Hill Carnival returned after a two-year hiatus. It started with a run and included a 72 second silence to remember 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Culture of the carnival

This huge street festival attracting about two million<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> people every year to Notting Hill and highlights Caribbean and Black diasporic cultures. Carnival uses influences from many other festivals around the world. Authors Julian Henriques and Beatrice Ferrara claim the festival draws mainly on the Trinidad Carnival as well as Crop Over, Canadian Caribana in Toronto and the US Labor Day Festival in Brooklyn. They also explain that Notting Hill Carnival is dually influenced by its diasporic cultures and its own country's influences. Henriques and Ferrara claim: "Carnival also has an explosive auditory impact due to its cacophony of sounds, in which soca, steel bands, calypso floats and sound systems mix and mingle in a multi-media and multi-sensory event" (Ferrara 132).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

This mixture of percussion, with emphasis on the beat and rhythm, leads to the extreme dancing in the streets for which Carnival is known, with citizens participating to the beat of the music, using mud and paint, dancing with the lower parts of the body. Henriques and Ferrara explain that people emphasize the "baseness" of the music, with everything being about the "bottom": the ground, the bottom of the body, and the bottom of the beat. The festival uses influences from the Jamaican dancehalls and British clubs, and the music is made loud enough for participants to feel the beat. The vibrations from the speakers allow people to better connect with the ground and bring their experience to another level.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The authors of the same article further explain how Notting Hill Carnival also creates "territory". The parade route portion of the Carnival is where carnival floats play both recorded and live music and circulate the street, visualizing the boundaries of Carnival and marking its territory. The circulating movement of the Carnival parade is also an extending of space through sound. Territorializing the space through sounds of African beats, such as the pan, fosters a sense of identity and unity for the overall Carnival.<ref name="The Sounding">Henriques, Julian, and Beatrice Ferrara, "The Sounding of Notting Hill Carnival: Music as Space, Place and Territory."</ref>

Professor David Dabydeen has stated:

"Carnival is not alien to British culture. Bartholomew Fair and Southwark Fair in the 18th century were moments of great festivity and release. There was juggling, pickpocketing, whoring, drinking, masquerade – people dressed up as the Archbishop of Canterbury and indulged in vulgar acts. It allowed people a space to free-up but it was banned for moral reasons and for the anti-authoritarian behaviour that went on like stoning of constables. Carnival allowed people to dramatise their grievances against the authorities on the street... Notting Hill Carnival single-handedly revived this tradition and is a great contribution to British cultural life."<ref name="culture" />

Artists and musicians

Many carnival artists who created costumes and floats for bands and Samba Schools have left their mark, among them: Allyson Williams, the administrator and seamstress for the mas band Genesis,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Clary Salandy of Mahogany Carnival,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Carl Gabriel<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Ray Mahabir.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Aswad's performance at the 1983 Carnival was released as an album Live and Direct.

The Carnival further diversified in 1984 with the appearance of the London School of Samba<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and other samba schools followed in the 1990s.

Sound systems greatly expanded during the 1980s and 1990s, some of the biggest including Channel One, Saxon Sound, Mastermind Roadshow, RapAttack, and Good Times.

Media coverage

Compared to other major music and art events such as Glastonbury Festival, Notting Hill Carnival has historically struggled to gain any live coverage outside of local media. The majority of carnival live broadcasts have been traditionally on BBC London radio (hitting a peak of coverage in the years of 2003 and 2004),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and on BBC Radio 1Xtra in more recent years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

When the Golden Jubilee of Notting Hill Carnival was celebrated in 2016,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 42 hours of live video coverage was broadcast by music live-streaming platform Boiler Room from the Rampage, Deviation, Aba Shanti-I, Channel One, Nasty Love, Saxon Sound, King Tubbys, Gladdy Wax and Disya Jeneration soundsystems.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Public order

Since the carnival did not have local authority permission, initial police involvement was aimed at preventing it taking place at all, which resulted in regular confrontation and riots. In 1976, the police had been expecting hostility due to what they deemed as trouble the year before. Consequently, after discovering pickpockets in the crowd, police took a heavy-handed approach against the crowds. The 1600-strong police force violently broke up the carnival, with the arrest of 60 people.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

After the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival, the Police Federation pressed for the introduction of riot shields to protect police from objects thrown at them, although the shields also had the potential for aggressive use, as in 1977.<ref>"Riot shields – protective or aggressive?", New Scientist (Vol. 75, No. 1070), 22 September 1977, p. 739.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A change of policy came after a confrontation in 1987, when the carnival was allowed to take place with police adopting a more conciliatory approach.

Some crimes associated with the carnival have taken place on its periphery: in 2007 two teenagers were wounded in separate shooting incidents just outside the carnival area on the Monday evening;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> however, police said there had been a decline in the number of carnival-linked arrests in comparison with the previous year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The 2008 Carnival was marred by rioting at the very end of the weekend, involving about 40 youths battling with police, and more than 300 people were arrested.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The carnival has come under criticism for its cost to the London taxpayer, with the 2023 estimate of cost of policing the event at nearly £12 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, it is argued that this should be put into context since the carnival is estimated to bring approximately £93,000,000 into the local economy.<ref name=LDA /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Although the 2011 Carnival was at risk of being cancelled in the wake of the early August riots in the UK that year,<ref>Bradley, Lloyd (25 August 2011), "Don't confuse Notting Hill carnival with the riots", U TV. Template:Webarchive.</ref> it was seen as being relatively peaceful. Five people were arrested for a stabbing at Ladbroke Grove.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The victim was one of 86 people who were taken to hospital. In total 245 people were detained by police over the two days of the carnival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2016 there were more than 450 arrests, and five people were hurt in four knife attacks, the number of arrests reportedly higher than usual due to the recently introduced Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.<ref name="Gayle2016">Template:Cite web</ref>

A report in 2019 indicated that, despite its reputation for crime, arrests as a proportion of attendance for 2016–18 were comparable to many other large events and festivals in the UK<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Ishmahil Blagrove, co-author of the book Carnival: A Photographic and Testimonial History of the Notting Hill Carnival, states: "Notting Hill Carnival, compared to Trinidad or Brazil, is one of the safest in the world."<ref name="Gayle2016" />

A report in 2004 by the GLA Policing Policy Director, Lee Jasper, criticised authorities for not addressing safety issues involved in more than a million people attending a small inner-city residential area. Met Police spokesman Dave Musker in November 2016 said: "Each year … we come exceptionally close to a major catastrophic failure of public safety where members of the public will suffer serious injury."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the three weeks running up to the 2017 event, the police made 656 arrests, a pre-emptive crackdown.<ref name=Grierson>Template:Cite news</ref> There were 313 arrests during the two days of the 2017 Carnival, compared with 454 the previous year.<ref name=Grierson />

During the 2018 event, due to the rising levels of violent crime in London, police deployed metal detectors to prevent weapons being brought to the event.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During the 2023 event there were 10 stabbings and 275 arrests, including 40 for sexual offences, and 75 assaults on police officers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2024, two people died in separate attacks, and a further seven people were stabbed non-fatally, with three left with life-threatening conditions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 349 people were arrested: 72 for possession of an offensive weapon, one for possession of a firearm, 13 for sexual offences, 53 assaults on emergency workers, and 61 assaults on police officers.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>

The Metropolitan Police announced that facial recognition would be used for the first time at the 2025 carnival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Since 1987, there have been eight deaths related to violence at carnival: 1987,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 1991,<ref>"Murderer still at large after brilliant scientist was brutally stabbed with 'Rambo' style knife at Notting Hill Carnival", MyLondon, 26 November 2021.</ref> two people in 2000<ref>"Carnival murder footage released", BBC News, 11 October 2000.</ref><ref>"'Racial motive' for carnival murder", BBC News, 5 September 2000.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 2004,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 2022,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and two people in 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>