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LONDON (AP) – The annual Notting Hill Carnival is back on London’s streets for the first time since 2019, with more than 1 million people expected to take part in music, spectacular parades, dancing and food offerings at the biggest celebration major road in Europe on Sunday and Monday.
The carnival, which celebrates Caribbean culture at the end of August each year, had to be held online for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The carnival traces its history back to 1958, when Trinidadian human rights activist Claudia Jones began organizing a rally to unite the community following a series of racially motivated attacks on West Indians in West London’s Notting Hill. .
The event has grown from a festival that draws a few hundred people to a huge annual street party, with tens of thousands of parade performers and more than 30 sound systems.
The celebrations began on Saturday evening as more than 1,000 people gathered to watch a steel band competition in west London.
Pepe Francis fronts the Ebony Steelband Trust, which has been performing at the carnival for decades.
“Since the band started, I’m in my fifth generation of people and there’s been a lot of changes,” he said. “But our members look forward to the carnival every year and the practice runs regularly from year to year.”
“A lot of people have been waiting for her to come back,” Francis added.
