Fun at Nottinghill Carnival

Heather was typically keen and insistent that we go down to the infamous Nottinghill Carnival. But when we asked Rosie about it, she mentioned that while she loved the jerk chicken, stressful experiences in the large crowds had put her off returning to the annual event. As carnival weekend came closer, the papers ran stories on police raids around the city aiming to reduce gang violence at the carnival, seizing large amounts of weapons and drugs. But my girl was still keen, and despite my protests and complaints of disliking large crowds, we made plans and headed down late on the Sunday morning, choosing family day as the time we thought best suited for us to attend. 

As the day warmed up, the beats rang out loud and booming with a mix of great reggae, steel bands and African sounds.

This is Europe's largest street party, and second largest in the world, next to Rio. Two million people attend over the bank holiday weekend, with 40,000 volunteers, and bringing some crazy figure like 90 million dollars into the London economy, which makes the policing spend of 6 million look quite reasonable.

So, the sun was shining, the sounds inviting, the floats full of colour and fun, the rum punch delicious,and the jerk chicken and plantain cooked to smoky perfection. At one point we provided some entertainment for a guy who looked on at our poor' ol white girls failed attempts to groove to the music, but I wasn't put off, and just enjoyed the day. The police were very friendly, and young people and families were always seen with them chatting and smiling, so despite the 30 something police that were assaulted over the weekend, and the hundreds of arrests that occurred, what I saw was a great advertisement for boosting police public relations. Of course, we arrived early, and had more than spent our budget by late afternoon, and as the air filled with more smoky BBQ haze, we happily made our way home after a great day.