LONDON
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Notting Hill C arnival
ach year on August Bank Holiday weekend, Notting Hill comes alive in a spectacular celebration of Caribbean Culture. Fun and vibrance are at the heart of the carnival: throughout the weekend you can expect to see miles of colourful floats, extravagant outfits and lots of dancing. There’s plenty of music catering to all tastes: Reggae, Samba, Blues, Dub, Calypso, Brazilian Samba and many more genres across the various sound systems and live stages. There are over 300 stalls serving delicious food where you can pick up some Jamaican Jerk Chicken or Trinidadian roti.
So why did carnival start in Notting Hill? Tension in the area had been increasing throughout the 1950s. The UK’s new welfare state needed workers, so the government implemented the British Nationality Act. The legislation invited the populations from former colonies to work and become citizens. More than 300,000 of those who came to the UK were from the Caribbean. Many settled in Notting Hill and Brixton, where they were subject to racism, discrimination and violence by their white neighbours.
This escalated into the Notting Hill Race Riots of The celebrations have grown significantly- the 1958, where white gangs known as the teddy boys first carnival in 1966 had just under 500 people launched an attack on the black community. The attending! Now, millions come to the event, and it is rioting lasted almost two weeks, and many were Europe’s largest street festival. injured and arrested. The origins go as far back as the 19th century to Trinidad- where the enslaved were forbidden from masquerade balls held by French plantation owners. In response, the African population developed their own traditions. They replicated costumes with natural products and used steel pans rather than drums, which they had been banned from using. They celebrated in their own way through traditional dancing, music and satirising the slave owners. The festivities continued after their emancipation in 1838. Today, Notting Hill Carnival draws on these traditions and celebrates freedom whilst preserving important elements of culture. 23
