Notting Hill Carnival, London

This street festival began initially from the black immigrants from the Caribbean, in particular, Trinidad, where the Carnival tradition is very strong, and from people living locally, who dreamed of creating a festival to bring together the people of Notting Hill, most of whom were facing racism, lack of working opportunities and poor housing conditions resulting in a general suppression.

There had been racial tensions in the late 50s and black people were subjected to constant pressures. Dances were organised in halls in North London, where black people could come together freely. At the same time steel band music was being played in Earls Court by Trinidadians who had immigrated to this country. From this evolved the idea of inviting the steelband to take part in a street festival in Notting Hill, to encourage people, mainly children, both black and white, to come onto the streets and express themselves socially as well as artistically. This first took place in 1964 and was a huge success.
In Trinidad, during the days of slavery, black people (slaves) were forbidden to play musical instruments and wear costumes, apart from when the traditional imported European Carnival took place, six weeks before Easter. On those occasions their participation was limited to providing entertainment for their masters.

It was also known that slaves wore forbidden to be in the streets after dark unless they were accompanying their masters. When the Laws were repealed and freedom from slavery was announced in 1833, the slaves took to the streets in song and dance, indulging in their culture and using their artistic skills to mimic their masters and pour scorn on the system that had had them enslaved for so long.

Consequently, slaves would dress like their masters, powder their faces to look pale like their masters or make masks to resemble their masters, distorting images and features to show they regarded their masters as evil or ridiculous.

These celebrations of freedom provided the only opportunity for black people to express their feelings about their slave masters and they quickly developed the art of costume making, creating fantastic ensembles which satirised their situation as Africans, transported to the Caribbean top become slaves.

In the late 20the Century there was a lot of trouble and violence at the carnival but in recent years, the event has been much freer from serious trouble and is generally viewed very positively as a dynamic celebration of London's multi-cultural diversity, though dominated by the Caribbean culture in the best traditions of Rio. However, there has been controversy over the public safety aspects of holding such a well-attended event in narrow streets in a small area of London. Now over a million people attend this part of London .

Higher could link this to the film Notting Hill for the Urban section you are covering just now with Mrs McF.