Only a few days to what would have been this year’s Notting Hill Carnival weekend… Yes, we are still heartbroken this magical party hasn’t happened for two years in a row!
Following Claudia Jones’ indoor carnival, community activists Rhaune Laslett and Andre Shervington organised a street festival following Jones’ same beliefs and turned the festival into a Carnival introducing a procession and the use of a steel pan.
This event marked the beginning of the annual Notting Hill Carnival with the gradual addition of Caribbean elements including more bands and costumes. By 1974, 100,000 people and a dozen bands participated and in 1975 static sound systems were introduced adding Jamaican reggae, dub, and ska music to the traditional calypso and soca.
We might not be able to dance down the streets of London this year (again :( ) but here's a link to the alternative parties you can join and get into the true Carnival spirit!
Notting Hill Carnival alternative celebrations
