bounceback big edition’ is what organizers have said, to whet our appetites for Notting Hill Carnival 2022, returning to West London this August Bank Holiday weekend. Europe’s biggest street festival – with thousands of participants, millions of spectators and a parade that passes through Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove, Westbourne Grove, Westbourne Park and Kensal Rise – returns three years after its last physical edition on Sunday 28 and on Monday. August 29, with the unique celebration of Caribbean culture, music, food and heritage.
The history of this event – an annual highlight for many and recognized around the world for its cultural significance as much as its size – is complex. “Where did the Caribbean Carnival in Notting Hill originate?” wrote activist, author, researcher and lecturer Michael La Rose in 2004 at 40 years of Notting Hill Carnival. “The answer lies in the mass migration of people from all over the Caribbean to England in the 1950s. They came to make a better life and to answer the call of a British economy that was desperate for workers after the ravages of World War II. World. We came by invitation, we were recruited. This fearless Caribbean generation brought with them the fantasy of the Caribbean mas (masquerade) tradition in their heads, in their hands the art of beating steel, in their blood the pulsating rhythms and dance of the Caribbean, on their lips calypso and in their hearts and their souls. organization, commitment and love for Caribbean carnival culture.”
With these words, the passion for the sounds, sights and shared traditions of Carnival is evident – they are the reason for its establishment, for its continued success and why it will continue for generations to come. Some of the most iconic images of the past and present events are of the mas groups, dressed in incredible costumes and judged by the official judges on both days of the carnival. The origin of mas, from ‘masquerade’, goes back to the 1800s with the emancipation of slavery in the Caribbean. “Before their freedom,” the NHC website explains, “slaves imitated and mocked masters, copying the elaborate dresses worn at their celebration balls and combining them with many African traditions of their earlier cultures— which included costumes made of bones and natural products and blue devils playing tin and bamboo music. Once the slaves were freed from the French, Spanish and English, they would openly continue and elaborate on these foundations, so the carnival of the Caribbean developed as a fusion of African and European traditions and culture.
The NHC’s own roots were laid at a time when many people had left the Caribbean for a new life in Britain as part of the Windrush Generation. In 1959, Trinidadian community activist Claudia Jones recognized that something needed to be done to unite her local community in response to the troubling state of race relations; The first widespread racial attacks in the United Kingdom, the Notting Hill race riots, had occurred the previous year. She held the first of several indoor Caribbean carnivals that year, at the St. Pancras; La Rose points out that Jones “understood the craftsmanship and creativity of the Caribbean carnival. She understood the unifying power of carnival. She felt it was important to build on the unity of the Caribbean people created in the struggle against the race riots.
To coincide with NHC 2022, artist and educator Linett Kamala is creating a mural in Notting Hill to celebrate the largely unknown story of Rhaune Laslett, a community activist and key organizer of the first Notting Hill Festival. A secretary who worked with Laslett reported that in the early 1960s, Trinidadian women from Tavistock Road, near Ladbroke Grove, went to Rhaune’s office for help. “They would talk, telling her about carnivals back home and wishing they could be there to experience it,” the NHC website recounts. “She thought it looked like a great party and suggested they could do something similar in the area.” She wanted to create an outdoor event that could be enjoyed by children and the local West Indian community. “I hope the mural will make more people aware of Rhaune Laslett,” says Kamala. “She had the vision to organize a small street party for children in the 1960s to ease racial tensions, which would later develop into what we now know as the Notting Hill Carnival. Her message of unity and community continues to this day.”
Kamala, now on the NHC Board of Trustees, was born to Jamaican parents who lived in the Notting Hill area when they first arrived in the UK in the 1950s. She became one of the first female DJs at Carnival at the age of 15. year old and now, 37 years later, she is the manager of the same static sound system she first performed at, Disya Jeneration; music has always been central to NHC. In 1964, Russell Henderson, a renowned pianist from Trinidad, was invited by Laslett to play steel drums at her annual event at Tavistock Road in W11. The public, amused by the small parade, joined the impromptu street party. The Carnival team cites this moment as “the spark that gave Laslett the idea to apply to the local council for permission to hold an outdoor event; she saw the impact the steel pan had on bringing the local community together and hoped she could replicate this by encouraging the small communities of a very multicultural West London at the time to take part by infecting ‘them with the desire to take part’ , saying “This can only have good results.” The Notting Hill Fayre and Pageant was held over a week from 18 September 1966.
Steelpan remains an integral element of the NHC today; is one of the key events for the best pan players and steel pant bands from across the UK to showcase their skills. It takes year-round, even lifetime dedication to master it. One of Europe’s top Soca artists and Triniboi Carnival ambassador Joocie explains why Notting Hill Carnival is unique when it comes to its music: “In the Caribbean the music played at Carnival is mainly Soca and Calypso while at NHC they have allowed other genres of music to be heard such as Afrobeats, Reggae and Dubstep. This I believe expands the marketing of the carnival, allowing new audiences to participate each year.”
The carnival has weathered storms of controversy over the decades, fighting press coverage that often took an unfairly negative and biased view of the event, and facing people who wanted it banned. In 1976 and the following years, the NHC was marred by unrest; Prince Charles was one of the few establishment figures who supported its continuation. It has also drawn criticism for the cost of controlling the event, although many later point out that what NHC adds to the local economy outweighs these costs. Overall, the positivity surrounding the NHC shines and continues to shine, growing, thriving and evolving into the event it is today.
Food is a vital part of the proceedings – you won’t go hungry as you sample food from one of the hundreds of stalls selling Jamaican chicken and Trinidadian roti and Guyanese peppers – as are the incredible mash costumes, bold and dynamic with lots of movement and detail . And they are officially art: in 1980, the Arts Council fully recognized masi as an art form. Claire Holder, the longest serving chairman of the Carnival committee from 1989 to 2002, established entry fees and prizes for mass groups as well as providing significant sponsorship for the carnival as a whole. This was important for the groups, both for the recognition of the art form and for giving them opportunities for development.
The NHC Advisory Council today includes cultural and political activist Ansel Wong, impresario Sonny Blacks, arranger and soloist Debra Eden and Soca News Katie Segal. Wong declares that today’s carnivals are “different” from those of past years, “but just as enjoyable. Just as unforgettable.” Blacks have been involved since the earliest days; he assembled the first group to organize the earliest carnivals at Notting Hill Gate and has always been involved in the arts and culture of Trinidad, particularly Carnival, Calypso and Steel Pan. Eden was also involved in Carnival from a young age, in mass bands and as a pan player: “My focus now,” she says, “is the evolution of the carnival arts.” Segal shares her desire to “nourish what we already have, and encourage it to…grow in positive directions. It is clear to me that the involvement and education of children and young people is the only way to ensure a successful future”.
Notting Hill Carnival 2022 runs from Saturday 27 August to Monday 29 August. nhcarnival.org
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