Guide to Notting Hill Carnival

5 April 2012

Ready to party: Notting Hill Carnival comes to town

What's happening where and when

The Notting Hill Carnival has been held on the August bank holiday since 1966, bringing the streets of west London alive with the sounds, costumes and smells of the Caribbean.

It started life as a local festival organised by the West Indian community in the area but has expanded into a full-blown Caribbean carnival attracting thousands of visitors from around the world.

The fun unofficially kicks off on Saturday with the steel band competition — the Steel Pan Panorama — in Hyde Park. But the official action takes place on Sunday and Monday. Proceedings will kick off at the new time of 9am to make sure that the floats get round the three-mile route from Great Western Road to Westbourne Grove and Ladbroke Grove in good time and that the parade is off the road by nightfall. Events end at 9pm on both days and sound systems at 7pm.

Sunday is traditionally children's day, with the emphasis on family and the parade reserved for young people under 21. The hardcore fun — with up to 40 static sound systems competing for attention as well as the adult's parade — takes
place on Monday with partying continuing late into the night.

Carnival-goers are advised to travel by public transport, bicycle or on foot and there is travel advice on the Transport for London website. Some Tube stations, including Ladbroke Grove, will be closed. Special express bus routes will operate from south London.
Louise Jury

SPIRIT OF CARNIVAL
We asked some Notting Hill regulars why they think the annual Bank Holiday street extravanganza is still worth joining...

Don Letts, 53
Musician and film-maker, whose new documentary Carnival! follows the history of the event

I've been coming to the Notting Hill Carnival for 35 years and filming it since 1976 when the riots kicked off. This year is its 50th anniversary, and anniversaries put me in a reflective state of mind. I passionately wanted to make a film about it because I feel the ideas and the motivation behind the original event are as relevant, if not more so, in today's social climate. ­Carnival is a barometer of the journey of multiculturalism.

It's been a hard road and we've got there but outside the bubble of London not everyone is living the happy dream. I'm not too pleased about strikes against foreign workers, about the BNP being elected to the European Parliament, about the Irish burning Romanians from their homes and churches. There are new immigrant communities facing the same problems my parents did when they came here from Jamaica.

The first Carnival was organised by Claudia Jones in the wake of the race riots of 1958 and 1959, and the murder of a black man called Kelso Cochrane. It was born out of struggle and conflict. For the next few years it represented the dreams and aspirations of people like my parents, who intended to go back home. But by the mid-Seventies, it had become an attempt by my generation to work out what it meant to be British and black. Today it's a diverse, multicultural, universal expression of what London is about. Notting Hill Carnival took centre stage at the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations, remember.

But will there be a Somali float, or an Eastern European float next year? I don't think so. And it's ironic that after years of the council, the police, local residents trying to shut it down, it's now most in danger of closure because of steaming gangs and black-on-black violence.

Carnival grew out of the racist murder of a black man but today I'm more likely to be killed by my own brethren. We need to address these things.
The purpose of Carnival is to bring people together and extend the hand of friendship, and I'm keen to pass that energy on to the new immigrants who are coming in behind us.

Music man: Don Letts inspired The Clash's punk-reggae fusion

The film uses archive footage to put Carnival into a context. It reminds people that Enoch Powell was the minister who first invited immigrants over to help with post-war reconstruction. There are contributions from people you'd expect, such as Soul II Soul's Jazzy B and DJ Norman Jay — both MBEs, incidentally, which tells you something about how British culture has changed. But we've also got interviews with Trevor Phillips, Sir Trevor McDonald and Paul Simonon from The Clash.
We're premiering it at the Tabernacle, which is still the headquarters of Carnival village. It's where The Clash played, and where that whole punky-reggae fusion thing took place [in the late Seventies]. Carnival was integral to the band, particularly to Joe Strummer, who was always switched on to the plight of immigrants.

Big Audio Dynamite [which Letts founded with Clash guitarist Mick Jones] couldn't have come from anywhere else but west London, because it had that multicultural mix of Jamaican basslines and rock guitars. Ever since the Sixties, when the Stones and Pink Floyd played there, the Tabernacle was the hub of the creative subculture of Notting Hill. It lost its way a bit a few years ago, when gentrification priced out the local community. But it's reinvented itself and reconnected to the grass roots. Damon Albarn and Lily Allen have worked there and helped put it back on track. It's now back at the heart and soul of the community, and of Carnival.
Carnival! is being shown at the Tabernacle in Powis Square, W11, at 7pm tomorrow. Free (information: www.tabernaclelive.co.uk).

Lindsay Johns, 32
Journalist and mentor to young black men for a south London charity

I will be standing close to a gargantuan speaker at Nasty Love sound system in Colville Gardens, baby-blue Kangol hat at a slant, sipping on an ice-cold Supermalt and swaying to classic ragga music.

Surrounded by jovial dreads in string vests quaffing Dragon Stout, young men festooned with meretricious bling and a few bewildered French tourists with rucksacks, I will be having a Baudelairean moment — taking, to use the 19th-century Parisian poet's great phrase, un bain de multitude — immersing myself in the vibes from the assembled throng and thereby affirming my humanity.

As the musical maelstrom that is Carnival begins in earnest for another year, and after some invariably overpriced jerk pork with rice and peas, I will doubtless follow a soca float up Westbourne Park, blaring the carnival anthems fresh from Trinidad or Barbados. I'll be waving my flag in the air, uninhibited and immersed in the spirit of Notting Hill.

Dancing behind some scantily cladwoman will complete the afternoon, as I entwine limbs with a random Circean goddesses, strangers brought together by the carnal undercurrent of Carnival.

Then, while foghorns and whistles blow, I will shimmy over to the Westway. Marvelling at the ornate costumes, soaking up the joyful pulse of the steel bands and observing the painted faces of smiling children, I will be deliriously happy.

Mesmerised by the power of music and its ability to help us enjoy the ­sensation of being alive, I will muse on what Carnival should be about: love, joy, peace, tolerance, togetherness and laughter, a celebration of the finest human emotions.

What Carnival is not about is attitude, puerile behaviour, thuggish lunacy or recklessly causing trouble because the guy next to you stepped on your toe. So leave the "screwface" scowl and the testosterone-fuelled truculence at home, please. If someone looks at you askance, don't kiss your teeth. Try smiling back. Go on, share the love.

But amid the boisterous bonhomie, bone-crushing bass and carpe-diem conviviality, we should also pause to reflect. We should whisper a thank you to the domino-playing, suited West-Indian pioneers who made London and Notting Hill, in particular, their home in the Fifties and Sixties and whose courage and resilience paved the way for attitudes at large to change towards black people in this ­country.

We should also be mindful of the many ways in which those early immigrants have enriched London life. In short, we should now consider ourselves privileged to have some black in the Union Jack.
Carnival has for many years been an institution for black Londoners, but now increasingly, in what I see as a positive step, more and more people from other ethnic backgrounds are plucking up the courage to join the party.

Norman Jay MBE, 50
DJ. Born and raised in Notting Hill, his Good Times sound system on a (stationary) double-decker bus will be at the junction of West Row & Southern Row, Ladbroke Grove

My most important gig': Norman Jay at his Good Times Carnival show

This year will be my 30th consecutive year at Carnival with my Good Times sound system. I look forward to it every year, it's the most important gig for me: it showcases the London/Caribbean experience.

We mainly attract under-thirties but the music I play bridges the generation gap and avoids alienating older fans — our following ranges from fathers and sons to grandchildren.

Carnival of 30 years ago bears no relation to what it is today. Now it's a fantastic, colourful, vibrant reflection of London life, underpinned by the traditional Afro-Caribbean experience.

My earliest memory of it is being dragged along there as a kid and hating it. But then I grew up and realised I wanted to be a part of this celebration of multi-culturalism. I was there in the bad old days when it was small and insular and the media hated it — the perception was that it was a bad thing but it's easy to be a keyboard critic because it's all about perception.

My Carnival debut with Good Times was in 1980. The tradition had always been soca, calypso, reggae, lovers' rock and African music and I played soul, funk, jazz and disco.

By going against the grain I faced hostility. But I knew there were people like me who felt there was nothing in Carnival that was for them — I introduced the clubbing experience to Carnival. In those days it was a free for all but we stuck by our guns and survived.

Good Times became a blueprint for others to copy and provided a platform for my generation of black DJs to establish themselves in their own right.

My tips would be to bring the right attitude, a smile and plenty of water, and buy food and drink from official stalls. The best thing about Carnival, unlike other events in this country, is that it's free. It's inclusive and nobody is priced out. The first parties in London were in the street, not in nightclubs.

Carnival is much safer now and much more appealing to a wider demographic: it's a shared cultural experience that's unique to the UK because everyone is welcome.

Speech Debelle, 26
Rapper, was nominated for this year's Mercury Prize for her debut album, Speech Therapy

Patties to partying: Speech Debelle

The first time I went to Carnival was when I was about 13 or 14. My mum's friend was selling patties and I was supposed to be helping — but all us young ones disappeared and went off dancing. We had so much fun.

More recently, we would head to the Rampage sound system in Colville Square where there was a stage that we danced next to all day — it must have been the Radio One Xtra stage [which is no longer at Carnival] because Tim Westwood was there. My mates and I saw Jamelia and Wycliffe perform. There was a fence to one side of the stage that was covered with security guards. I said to my friend: "I'm sure that looks like Busta Rhymes beyond that fence" — and we managed to slip past the guards and chatted to him for a while. He gave us a hug and we got his autograph. I'll remind him of that if I get to meet him again.

The last time I went was about three years ago and it didn't feel the same. Back in the day you could go dancing right next to the floats but last time I went, it was all cordoned off. It finishes earlier nowadays, too, just when the party's getting started. It's changing so much that you worry it might not be there soon.

Still, I'm definitely going this weekend. There's always a big hoo‑ha about whether it will be cancelled. I don't think Boris Johnson (I can't stand him) likes it. That other guy [Ken Livingstone] started the Respect Festival but Boris Johnson shut it down. I don't know if he's got any black friends — he's like from the Stone Age.

But Carnival's so important for this city: it represents multiculturalism. The street I live on has a white family, black families, Indian families. Without Carnival, there would be no way to celebrate that.

DJ Swerve, 29
Kiss 100's "hip hop and R&B ambassador", whose show goes out Monday to Thursday at 9pm

The Notting Hill Carnival is a really important part of UK culture. The music brings people of all ages from around the world to west London to experience the same thing: an incredible party.

The first time I went, I remember loving the hip hop under the Westway. But my fondest memory of Carnival is last year: I did an interview for Kiss 100 with a group of female dancers on a float from Trinidad, I jumped on and it was a sea of feathers and sequins. That moment captured a lot of what Carnival was about for me.

This year, I'm hoping for good weather but mostly I'm excited about the music. There are usually around 40 static sound systems on the route and it's good to take in the ­flavour of them all, playing anything from ragga to salsa to funky house. There's always a full-blown party at Good Times, a notoriously funky sound system, and Saxon Sounds on St Lawrence Terrace is one of the best sound systems for ragga and reggae.

If I had one top tip this year it would be: go with the flow. Don't stress trying to get somewhere, especially if it means trying to move through people going the opposite way. You'll probably end up discovering something new — and don't wear new trainers, they will get mashed up real quick.

*Interviews by Nick Curtis, Richard Godwin
and Saadeya Shamsuddin

NOTTING HILL TIMELINE

Hats off: a relaxed looking policeman gives a young boy a ride in 1980

1959
In response to the Notting Hill race riots the previous year, civil rights activist and journalist Claudia Jones organises the first Carnival in
St Pancras Town Hall.

1964
Local social worker Rhaune Laslett takes Carnival to the streets and it attracts 10,000 revellers. Carnival has five traditions: calypso and soca music, static sound systems, steel bands and Mas — the colourful Masquerade parade. Sunday is traditionally children's day, when the paraders must be under 21.

1976
Violence erupts between local youths and the police, inspiring The Clash's White Riot, released the following year. And although the event is mostly peaceful, five murders are associated with Carnival between 1987 and 2004.

2004
The Carnival Review Group, set up by former mayor Ken Livingstone to address safety concerns, first proposed moving the event to Hyde Park but the idea is opposed by Carnival organisers. The CRG estimates that the event contributes about £93 million to London's economy.

2005
Ken Livingstone controversially launches the Caribbean Showcase in Hyde Park, denying it is a counter event to Carnival. In 2007 the Panorama steel band competition takes place at Hyde Park on the Saturday as a prelude to Carnival, in agreement with Notting Hill organisers. The showcase is scrapped by Boris Johnson in 2008.

2008
The Tabernacle in Powis Square, set up in the 1970s as a community hub for locals, reopens after a £1 million refurbishment. It has become centre of operations for Carnival organisers, who use it for costume-making, as a practice studio and for various other related activities. This year, 15,000 feather plumes, 30 million sequins and 30 litres of body paint will be used by Mas paraders.

2009
Carnival, now the second biggest in the world after Rio de Janeiro's Mardi Gras event, is expected to attract up to two million people over two days. There will be 300 food stalls, 39 sound systems and 270 portable loos in use.

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