Notting Hill Carnival.
The first day of the Notting Hill Carnival was today. This is apparently the biggest street festival in Europe and attracts 2 million people over its 2 days, all crammed into the fairly posh and fairly small suburb of Notting Hill. Its roots are as a festival of black culture and it started life in the ‘60s as a tiny parade of neighbourhood kids dressed in masquerade and they were soon followed by steel bands and it developed into a street carnival. Back then, the Notting Hill locals were mostly Carribean, Jamaican and other black cultures and it was a very lively, though less well-heeled population. I think I would have liked the Notting Hill of the ‘60s more. However, despite the fact that we both LOVE Afro-Caribbean-Jamaican music, the thought of mingling with over a million people has deterred us. Especially considering recent years have seen 2 murders and many muggings, stabbings and other assaults. We’ll see Notting Hill Carnival next year when we are more seasoned Londoners. There is a mini carnival in the street outise now anyway, from the spillover out of Notting Hill.
So, instead of the carnival, we visited Camden markets and mingled with only about half a million people instead. Have never been to such a full-on market. Tricky especially loved the fashion and I had to physically stop her from buying stuff (not really). We’ll be back when we’re more cashed up.