| Notting
Hill Carnival 2004. The Carnival's roots date back to the Abolition
of Slavery Act in 1833 when the first Caribbean carnival was held
in Trinidad Black Caribbeans took to the streets for their own carnival
party, with song, dance and costumes. When the first significant numbers
of West Indian immigrants came to the UK in the 1950s, they brought
their musical traditions. But what began with harassment of individual
black men by white gangs blew up into a full-scale riot in August
1958 which continued for weeks. The following year, carnival's first
British incarnation took place in St Pancras Town Hall, organised
by West Indian Gazette editor Claudia Jones. |
| Carnival
Round Up - 2000 Labroke Grove is the heart of the spectacular
Notting Hill Carnival, held each August Bank Holiday since 1966. This
holiday always falls on the last weekend of August with Sunday and
Monday being the major carnival days. The festivities started as a
local affair set up by the West Indian immigrants of the area and
has become a full-blooded Caribbean carnival, attracting millions
of people from all around the world. There are scores of massive 'sound
systems', many spectacular floats and steel drum bands additionally,
to keep you well fed, there are hundreds of stalls lining the streets
of the area selling all sorts of food and drink including Caribbean
specialities |
| Carnival
News 2001 The continuing Carnival debate rages on this week with
allegations being thrown left, right and centre. As we might have
all come to expect, the opposition stands as follows: The Carnival
Trust on the left, Mr Ken Livingstone starting to wobble off the fence
and various borough councils on the right. The last few months have
seen the re-routeing of Notting Hill Carnival hotly debated in the
press, in the GLA and within the confines of council boardrooms. Everyone
proclaims the importance of Notting Hill Carnival as an event for
racial integration, the celebration of culture and as an event unique
to Europe. Yet the thought of bearing any responsibility for the August
bank holiday event is obviously a thought worse than death. The evidence
stands as follows: Westminster Borough Council attempts to shrug off
any responsibility this week with allegations that Mr Livingstone
has been fiddling a vote with regard to a re-route into their said
borough. |
| THE
CARNIVAL IS OVER The spirit of Notting Hill was lost when it started
to be about cross-cultural harmony. Nine years ago, when I decided
to publish a weekly African-Caribbean newspaper, Black Briton, I knew
there was only one way to launch it. So on the weekend of the Notting
Hill carnival our staff all went down to put up posters, stick balloons
on floats and flood the place with leaflets. At the time it was the
place to make an instant connection with hundreds of thousands of
our target readers. And we weren't the only ones: the Voice newspaper
had launched in a similar way nine years previously; and the carnival
was synonymous with the Caribbean Times, who gave away thousands of
papers, had their name on numerous floats and bedecked the main music
stage with huge banners. |
| Policing
the Notting Hill carnival cost a record £5.6m last year,
more than twice the amount spent on the anti-capitalist May Day demonstrations
in London four months earlier, it was revealed yesterday. Scotland
Yard commissioner, Sir John Stevens, gave the details in a report
to the finance, planning and best value committee of the Metropolitan
police authority. Concern over the rising cost of the carnival led
the police to estimate last year's event would cost £4m. The
final bill was higher because of the Met's determination to prevent
the violence and murders that marred the 2000 event. The force paid
for 80 extra CCTV cameras and hand-held metal detectors, to help officers
identify people carrying guns and knives. Crime was cut by a quarter. |
| Notting
Hill Carnival may get park venue The Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's
biggest street party, may be rerouted to one of London's royal parks
under plans being considered by the Greater London Authority. With
fears growing for the long-term future of the carnival, the GLA has
drawn up other possible routes for the famous procession of floats
and sound systems. The intention is to disperse the huge crowds away
from the tight residential streets of west London, where two men were
murdered last year. Greg Watson, 21, was stabbed to death on the final
evening of the carnival, shortly after Abdul Bhatti, 28, a salesman,
was left with fatal injuries by a gang who beat him. There were 11
stabbings over the August bank holiday weekend in Notting Hill, and
132 robberies, up from 13 in 1999. |
| Carnival
2002. After months of acrimony, The Notting Hill Carnival Trust
has appointed Professor Chris Mullard as its new chairman. Mullard
takes on the Chair after Claire Holder was suspended from the position
of chief executive three months ago. The carnival was also officially
launched last night and is due to take place on August 25th and 26th.
A former resident of Notting Hill, Mullard is confident that he can
have a timely influence on this year's carnival. Speaking to the BBC,
he said: "I think there will be enough time to introduce a balance
and framework for the Carnival which is one of the reasons I have
been chosen for the job." |
| Nicking
Hell Carnival. A Very Useful Opinion Advantages: Sampling some
great music., Trying new foods., amazing costumes and dancers. Disadvantages:
Huge crime scene. This little celebration is getting way out of hand.
I went to the Notting Hill Carnival two years ago and had a great
time. I travelled light, boogied like there was no tomorrow, drank
tropical concotions, eat god knows what, and got home (eventually!)
exhilared and enlightened from a veritable whirlwind of cultural experiences. |
| The
Notting Hill race riots. After 44 years ! Secret papers reveal
truth about five nights of violence in Notting Hill. Senior officers
tried to play down reports of race riots but police on street witnessed
attacks by white mobs. Senior Metropolitan police officers tried to
dismiss the Notting Hill race riots which raged for five nights over
the August bank holiday in 1958 as the work of "ruffians, both
coloured and white" hellbent on hooliganism, according to newly
released official files. But police eyewitness reports in the secret
papers confirm that they were overwhelmingly the work of a white working
class mob out to get the "niggers". The ferocity of Notting
Hill "racial riots" as the press called them at the time,
shocked Britain into realising for the first time that it was not
above the kind of racial conflict then being played out in the American
deep south. The carnival, which will fill the streets of west London
with more than 1.5 million people this weekend, was started in 1959
as a direct response to the riots. |
| MURDERS
! Keeping the carnival spirit alive. Street Parties 2000 / 2001. Last
minute adjustments to floats and costumes are under way ahead of this
weekend's 37th Notting Hill Carnival - the biggest street party in
Europe. But behind the excitement, many people inside and outside
Notting Hill's west London community harbour concerns about the outcome
of the two-day event. Last year's carnival was billed as the biggest
and best yet, set to attract more than two million revellers. But
when two people were murdered, with many more victims of crime, serious
questions were raised about the carnival's future. Many sections of
the community had already been warning changes were necessary. Crime
and overcrowding had been issues for a number of years. |
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