Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill is a district in west London and in the 1950s it became home to immigrants from the West Indies and elsewhere. Claudia Jones (1915-64) had the idea of organising a week-long event to bring the community together. This was the indoor Notting Hill Fayre & Pageant, first held in 1959 in local halls. She is often credited as being the ‘mother’ of the Notting Hill Carnival (NHC), but there is another claimant ~ Rhaune Laslett (1919-2002), organiser of the first outdoor event in 1966.

Women are very much behind the success of what has become the world’s second biggest carnival (after Brazil’s Rio), not least in the numerous hours spent sewing the glittery, sequin- and feather-adorned costumes and masks. NHC takes place every year at August Bank Holiday, come rain or shine, over three nights and two days.

Up to two million visitors and 12,000 police officers fill the streets, which are closed to traffic. The carnival procession makes its way along Great Western Road, Westbourne Park, Ladbroke Grove and Kensal Road. The fun includes steel band competitions, calpyso music, sound systems, Afro-Caribbean food, dancing, street and stage performers, and thousands of volunteers help to make NHC the main celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture in the country.

(Image: Maja Kucova at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)