Mas performers in costume perform at the Notting Hill Carnival, London

© Daniel Berehulak/Getty Image

It’s party time. Notting Hill Carnival

The streets of west London will shake to the beat of steelbands and calypso music as the Notting Hill Carnival returns after two years of virtual festivities during the pandemic. Dancehall, dub and grime music will reverberate from 30 static sound systems, bringing the party vibe to the streets while hundreds of stalls serve up tasty food, from curried goat, Jamaican jerk chicken and fried plantain to Trinidadian roti and Guyanese pepper pot. The centrepiece of this celebration of Caribbean culture, music, dance and food is the main parade featuring floats and glittering mas (masquerade) bands sporting sequins, feathers, masks and other eye-catching costume creations.

The origins of the Notting Hill Carnival go back to late 1959, when Claudia Jones held the first indoor Caribbean carnival aimed at uniting the community amid deteriorating race relations. In the 1960s, activist Rhaune Laslett suggested that Trinidadian women in the area hold a carnival festival in August while the children were off school. From small beginnings, it has grown into Europe’s biggest street festival, an iconic event that attracts about a million people and brings the noise to this corner of west London over the bank holiday weekend.