Coming up – Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival is the loudest party in London.

Not perhaps by decibels alone – though there are 40 static sound systems and huge numbers of steel pan and samba bands; it’s the brilliant colours, too, which shout loudly at you as soon as you arrive.

In fact, the Carnival is a sensory overdose. The smell of Caribbean food, the beat of the music, the movement of the dance – it’s practically overwhelming until you learn to go with the flow and just enjoy it.

The  Carnival is a great Trinidadian tradition, but in London it goes back to 1959 when ‘Trini’ Claudia Jones started the Carnival,  in St Pancras Town Hall. In 1966 it became an outside event and has been held on the streets of Notting Hill ever since.

Though it tarted as a purely local event, it’s a huge party now – at its peak in 2000 one and a half million people came, though in recent years attendance has fallen to about 700,000. It’s branched out from its Afro-Caribbean roots, too – now there’s a big Latino continent, and Kurds, Filipinos and other nationalities are represented.

There’s no such thing as a bystander in Carnival. The Notting Hill motto says “Every spectator is a participant” – so be prepared to party properly. Dressing down is not really the right thing to do!

Although Carnival has sometimes had a troubled history – there were riots in the 1970s and there have been a few murders – it seems to have settled down over recent years. It should be a safe and enjoyable day out, but you are probably best warned not to take a huge amount of money, and leave your expensive cameras and your credit cards at home!

When: 29-30 August

Where: Notting Hill area. Use Notting Hill Gate or Westbourne Park stations, or to avoid the crush use Paddington, High Street Kensington, Holland Park or Queens Park, and hike from there. More details on the Carnival website.

Photo by zoyachubby on flickr