Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival is held in London each August bank holiday, and is the largest and most colourful street event in Britain. The festival celebrates the traditions of the British black community, who emigrated to Great Britain from the West Indies in the 1950s. They brought with them the Caribbean idea of the carnival, with processions, colourful costumes, steel bands and street dancing. Preparations for the carnival begin many months beforehand. Costumes have to be made, and floats built, ready for the street procession. Steel bands practise traditional Caribbean music on instruments made from old oil drums. Shortly before the festival, the streets are decorated with red, green and yellow streamers, and amplifiers are set in place, to carry the rhythmic sounds over the roar of the London traffic. The carnival lasts for three days, and is full of music and colour. Processions of floats, steel and brass bands, and dancers in exotic costumes make their way through the narrow London streets, watched by thousands of people. The streets are lined with stalls selling tropical fruits, such as fresh pineapple, watermelons and mangoes. Everybody dances – black and white, young and old – and even the policemen on duty take part in the fun. For these three days in August, a little Caribbean magic touches the streets of London.