After a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, London’s Notting Hill Carnival is back this weekend and promises to be better than ever. In less than 24 hours, the annual community-led event, which takes place over three days over the August bank holiday weekend, will open with a traditional pre-sunrise celebration of J’Ouvert – a colorful Caribbean practice that includes carnivalgoers covering their bodies with colors. paints, mud and oil – before rolling into the Children’s Day Parade and ending with a fun-filled Adult’s Day.
Linett Kamala, board member and carnival organizer, tells THAT UK that planning for the next event begins ‘as soon as the carnival ends’ and involves working with ‘countless community partners on theme announcements, food vendors and static sound system stages’. “All the things that go into making Carnival the party it is,” she adds.
Unity and cooperation across the Caribbean community and the black British diaspora has always been at the heart of Carnival’s mission, explains Kamala, ‘because of its ability to bring life and a sense of home to people in the local black community in Notting Hill and surrounds. area’. With two million people estimated to attend this year’s event, and around 40,000 volunteers, Kamala describes the carnival as “a melting pot for all things Caribbean”. You have the steel panist with roots from Trinidad and Tobago along with soca, originating from Barbados, along with food vendors cooking up the best Jamaican cuisine – you have it everything at the carnival!’
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Despite its current position as the second largest street carnival of its kind (second only to Rio de Janeiro), its beginnings were far from smooth sailing. The festival, which was originally conceived by activist Rhaune Laslett and Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones in 1959 before being developed in 1973 by Leslie Palmer, was born out of a need to improve race relations among Caribbean immigrants who moved to Britain after the Second World War. World War II to help. rebuild the country and clear the West London area of community hostility.
In the face of overt and systemic racism, migrants from the Windrush generation poured into the area, aiming to occupy the ‘houses of multiple occupancy’ (HMOs). Despite cramped and unsafe accommodation conditions, in addition to unscrupulous landlords, Notting Hill became one of the few areas in London that allowed West Indian immigrants to rent. Tensions between the predominantly white working-class residents over manual labor and housing, as well as an anti-immigrant rhetoric instilled by far-right groups such as Oswald Mosley’s Unionist Movement, led to an unrelenting wave of abuse of Caribbean migrants.
Racial tensions came to a head in 1958 after a dispute between a Swedish woman, Majbritt Morrison, and her Jamaican husband, Raymond, prompted a mostly white crowd to come to her defense (which she did not want ) and a fight between them and Raymond’s West Indian community. The incident sparked a racial attack across Notting Hill, involving up to 400 Teddy Boys – a 1950s youth movement – and resulted in rioting that lasted five days and resulted in 140 arrests and 108 charges.
Kamala explains that Notting Hill Fayre – or Notting Hill Carnival, as it is now known – came as ‘a much-needed healing and unified response, with a clear message of ‘no fear’. She continues, noting that the event showed local immigrants that they had the ‘freedom to occupy space in the community they were helping to build’.
While much has changed since Carnival’s turbulent beginnings, thanks to an improved police presence, Carnival reporting is known to be skewed by a one-sided crime rhetoric that exaggerates the number of arrests that occur during the event, despite comparable levels of crime. at major British festivals and major events.
In the Notting Hill Carnival crime scene, Kamala says crime is an issue the charity has been working tirelessly to reduce and combat, with initiatives this year such as the ‘Ask Angela’ campaign. “We have gone through training with projects like WAVE (Welfare And Vulnerability Engagement),” she tells us. “Despite the fact that security issues at Carnival are often vexed, we are and have always was, a community-focused event, so we will always work hard, year after year, to make sure everyone feels safe and welcome at the Carnival.’
The charity’s message of unity was vital to its survival during its three-year hiatus as a result of the global pandemic, which saw the carnival move from the streets to online for the first time in 54 years. “We made the decision very early on to cancel and prioritize the safety of all those carnivals of love,” explains Kamala.
Despite the carnival being a digital-first event during the pandemic, she says it “ultimately led to even more connections, becoming more accessible than ever.” “We’ve even had other carnivals ask us to help them figure out how to go digital,” she adds. “Although monetarily we “lost” because no event is free Actually free, we won so a lot.’
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Black trade, from the sale of country flags to food stalls in Guadeloupe and massive, intricately crafted costumes are a major part of the event’s success. “We’re very pleased to be back and out there on the road giving back to the community in person,” adds Kamala. “There’s a huge economic ecosystem around Notting Hill Carnival with the ability to buy from black vendors and really inject a boost into the local community – people come from far and wide so it’s important to have a wide offering .”
Big brand partnerships which are rooted in historical connection also play a big role in this event. This year, attendees will see brands such as Jamaican spirits label Wray and Nephew take over Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance Park stage ‘to pay homage to the island’s significant contribution to music over the years’, says Kamala. Paying it back musically, as well as honoring carnival and Caribbean history, is a core principle of the event, she says. “I look after the Lin Kam Art Soundsystem Future Programme, which is a project that allows teenagers and young adults to be involved in both production and carnival performances.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be Notting Hill Carnival without the eclectic mix of music on offer. Kamala, who became the carnival’s first female DJ at the age of 15, started playing at the event after attending the weekend’s festivities as a child with her parents. “I started playing electronics, scratching and emulating some of the things we saw US Hip Hop artists doing, which at the time was quite a change compared to the sound systems at the carnival playing reggae and sounds more traditionally Caribbean,” she recalls. . For Kamala, the appreciation of music from carnivals in different parts of black communities means ‘we have music from different places throughout the diaspora’. ‘As you play mas, you’ll be followed by soca, but you’ll also hear afrobeats. And for the first time this year the hugely popular South African band Amapiano.’
Looking ahead to this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, it’s important to Kamala that she – and the local community – follow in the footsteps of her parents, who were part of the Windrush generation, and pioneering women like Jones and Laslett. “This is exactly what Carnival is and always will be – [a celebration of] young people, next to the elderly – in unity”, she says.
Find out more about Notting Hill Carnival here.
DONATE TO THE CARNIVAL TRUST HERE
