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Notting Hill Carnival celebrates 55th anniversary

Neve Dawson
Four musicians surrounded by drums in preparation for a performance at Notting Hill Carnival.

Neve Dawson

For most, the last week’s Bank Holiday Weekend allowed for a three-day rest. For West London, however, the 55th Notting Hill Carnival was far from being at rest.

Numerous celebrities were in attendance, coming together with the local community to celebrate heritage and tradition at the annual cultural celebration.

75 Years since Windrush

Notting Hill Carnival shared its 55th anniversary with another important commemoration: 75 years since the first Windrush Arrivals. The streets of West London were a blur of colours, feathers and flags, as well as TFL (Transport for London) buses brandishing new Windrush artwork.

Deborah Klass, Chief Executive of the Windrush Generation Association, spoke to the press about the float designed for and dedicated to those who first arrived in 1948, alighting off the HMT Empire Windrush. She stated: “I think we’ve got someone from every island in the Caribbean on this bus today.

“We’ve been involved in getting our elders on to the bus today so they can be celebrated. It will have been 75 years since they first came to Britain. We want to give that welcome that they should have had.”

Other events were also remembered and paid tribute by the carnival, including a 72-second silence in memory of the victims who perished in the Grenfell Tower fire. Members of the London Fire Brigade also lined up in silence outside Ladbroke Grove’s Fire Station.

The tribute was particularly harrowing, as similar towers shadowed the streets of the carnival.

Spot the Celebrities

The booming sound systems and echoes of whistles were not the only sights to be seen at the. Numerous celebrities, including Lily Allen, Idris Elba and Nick Grimshaw, were among this year’s crowds, which were predicted to reach numbers of up to 2 million by the end of the weekend.

 

Questions of Safety

In recent years, concerns surrounding public safety have grown following violent incidents throughout the carnival’s history.

This year, 275 arrests were made across the weekend, ranging from sexual assault crimes to the possession of drugs. Two different men have been left in critical condition following separate stabbings near the carnival, in addition to 6 other men receiving non-life-threatening injuries as a result of similar attacks.

Organisers of the Notting Hill carnival said they “deplore all acts of violence.” Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the instances of violence as committed by a “small number of very dangerous people.”

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Featured image courtesy of Neve Dawson. No changes were made to this image.

MA Newspaper Journalism Student at City, University of London| News, Culture and Arts Journalist for DIY Magazine, Empoword Journalism, So Young Magazine and The Rodeo Magazine.

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