Notting Hill Carnival

Participant in Notting Hill Carnival parade

Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event which takes place in Notting Hill, London, England each August, over two days (Sunday and the following bank holiday). It has continuously taken place on the streets of Notting Hill since 1965. It is led by members of the Caribbean population, many of whom have lived in the area since the 1950s. The carnival has attracted up to 2 million people in the past, putting it the second largest street festival in the world, after Rio.

It attracted press attention in 1976 for clashes with the police, which continued for several years. More recently however Carnival has been seen as a peaceful event, and attracts press attention for the attendance figures.

Events

On Saturday, the Panorama National Champions of Steel competition, a battle of the steelbands, takes place. This was held on Kensal Road, but in 2007 the event was moved to Hyde Park, and held at the earlier time of 17:30 until 21:30. This is a competition between steelpan bands, which are mainly from London, although recently it has included bands from other areas of the UK.

Carnival parades kick off on Sunday with Children's Day, which uses a shorter route tailored to children, families and young people. In recent years, this has become increasingly popular, attracting 300,000 to 500,000 people. Many children's groups participate in traditional Caribbean style, with both tykes and teens parading in elaborate costumes. Other participants have adapted traditions to suit younger children, those with disabilities and families. For example, the ten year old Fox Carnival Band, unites its members via matching T-shirts designed on a theme; all the art they parade is carried on standards and has been created (often digitally) by the youngsters. For Children's Day, small faces are often painted rather than masked.

The increase of children's involvement in Notting Hill Carnival has inspired festivals such as the venerable Ryde Carnival, on the Isle of Wight and London's annual Mayor's Thames Festival to include its groups in their own calendar.

The main Notting Hill Carnival parade takes place on Monday.

The current route for the main parade covers around 3 miles, following Great Western Road, Chepstow Road, Westbourne Grove and Ladbroke Grove. In addition to trucks with pan bands or mobile sound systems, there are costumed masqueraders and around 40 static sound systems spread throughout the area playing a range of music at high volume. While the "traditional" Soca and some Calypso can still be found, many other musical styles are represented.

History

Approximately 1 million people attend the Notting Hill Carnival each year.

Carnival began in January 1959 in St Pancras Town Hall as a response to the depressing state of race relations at the time; the UK's first widespread racial attacks (the Notting Hill race riots) had occurred the previous year. It was a huge success, despite being held indoors.

It first moved outside and shifted into August in 1965. The prime movers were Rhaune Laslett, who was not aware of the indoor events when she first raised the idea, and Claudia Jones, who is widely recognised as 'the Mother of Notting Hill Carnival'. At this point, it was more a Notting Hill event than an African-Caribbean event, and only around a thousand people turned out.

By 1976 the event had become definitely Caribbean in flavour, with around 150,000 people attending. However, in that year and several subsequent years Carnival was marred by riots, in which predominantly Caribbean youths fought with police — a target due to the continuous harassment the population felt they were under. During this period, there was considerable coverage of the disorder in the press, which some felt took an unfairly negative and one-sided view of Carnival. For a while it looked as if the event would be banned. Prince Charles was one of the few establishment figures who supported the event.

In recent years, the event has been much freer from serious trouble and is generally viewed very positively by the authorities as a dynamic celebration of London's multi-cultural diversity, though dominated by the Caribbean culture in the best traditions of Rio. However, there has been controversy over the public safety aspects of holding such a well-attended event in narrow streets in a small area of London.

Concerns about the size of the event resulted in London's Mayor, Ken Livingstone, setting up a Carnival Review Group to look into "formulating guidelines to safeguard the future of the Carnival". An interim report by the review resulted in a change to the route in 2002. When the full report was published in 2004, it was recommended that Hyde Park be used as a "savannah"; though this move has attracted some concern that the Hyde Park event may overshadow the original street carnival.

In 2003 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 contributes around £93 million to the London and UK economy.

In 2005, entrants from Notting Hill Carnival participated in the Bridgwater, Somerset carnival - Europe's largest lighted carnival and part of the West Country Carnival circuit.

Since 2007 Notting Hill Carnival and the Summer Carnaval in Rotterdam work together in a coalition in which they exchange brass bands and steel bands.

Attendance figures

• 2007 - 2,000,000 (1.4 million Sunday | 600,000 Monday
• 2006 - 1,000,000 (500,000 Sunday | 500,000 Monday) organizers / 800,000 (300,000 Sun | 500,000 Mon) authorities
• 2005 - 750,000
• 2004 - 750,000
• 2003 - 600,000
• 2002 - 1,400,000
• 2001 - 1,250,000
• 2000 - 1,500,000
• 1999 - 1,400,000
• 1998 - 1,150,000
• 1997 - 1,300,000
• 1996 - 1,000,000

Main Source (1996-2005):

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. A change of policy came after a confrontation in 1987, which saw a change to allowing the Carnival to take place with police taking a more conciliatory approach. In the 2000 Carnival two men were murdered and future policing, whilst conciliatory has led to police deployment in large numbers- upwards of 11,000. Some of the crime associated has been displaced to the periphery. In 2007 two teenagers were shot just outside the Carnival area. The Review in 2000 by participants (but not local residents) resisted calls from the Mayor of London to resite the event in Hyde Park but led to the parades taking a circular rather than linear route.

The amount of crime taking place has been controversial and police have been advised to ignore non-violent offences. However it is undisputed that five murders have taken place;

1987- Michael Galvin ;a white stallholder -stabbed.

1991- Dr. Nicholas Hanscomb ; a white supporter of a religious group bled to death after being stabbed in the thigh.

2000- Greg Watson, a black man stabbed to death after an argument over food.

2000- Abdul Bhatti,- a Pakistani stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack by a group of 40-50 youths.

2004-Lee Surbaran ; a black man who was shot by a gang using a machine pistol for "showing disrespect"

Gallery

• 
  Resident participation at Carnival
• 
  A woman in costume.
• 
  Carnival dancers on Ladbroke Grove.

External links

• London Carnival
• BBC website
• London Notting Hill Carnival Ltd
• Carnival Forum
• Moving Map of Carnival route
• http://www.portowebbo.co.uk/nottinghilltv/carnival1.htm