Notting Hill Carnival

1966 seems like a pretty good year to kick off a festival in London, and this auspicious start has seen this local pow wow set up by the West Indian community of the Notting Hill area grow into a full-blooded Caribbean carnival. In fact, with its massive influx of visitors, Notting Hill Carnival is ranked the second largest carnival in the world, second only to the Rio original. It attracts visitors from all over the globe with its colourful floats, traditional steel drum bands, multitude of sound systems, and hundreds of market stalls that line the streets of Notting Hill. Notting Hill on August Bank Holiday becomes a roadblock of characters, all with their best navigation hats on looking to find their way to one of the many events they've got their eye on - and usually at a slower than snail's pace. The carnival warms up with the steel band competition, but by the time of the main parade, 20 miles of meandering costumes and floats are snaking their way through over a million party-goers crowded around 50 strategically placed sound systems from the likes of Norman Jay, Aba Shanti, Channel One, Co-op, and many other controllers. The Red Bull Music Academy stage sounded its debut with a bang last year, featuring soundbwoys like Diplo, Rusko, The Heatwave and Toddla T. Big!

Date

August 26 - August 27, 2012

Address

Notting Hill
London W10

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