This bank holiday weekend, the streets of Notting Hill once again set the stage for one of the greatest celebrations on Earth.
Children danced through the streets in a blaze of colour. Costume-makers with deft fingers created masterpieces from feathers, sequins and gems. Street vendors served up world-class pepperpot, Trinidadian roti and jerk chicken, and sound systems and steelpan bands shook the streets with the unmistakable sound of carnival.
On its 60th anniversary, Notting Hill carnival proved itself to be bigger, bolder and more vibrant than ever. It’s now the world’s second-largest street festival, attracting people from around the globe and generating a whopping £400m for our economy each year.
But carnival has always been much more than just a party. It’s a loud and proud celebration of Caribbean culture and the extraordinary contribution that Caribbean communities have made to our capital city. For me, it represents London at its very best: people of different ages, backgrounds, colours and creeds coming together, sharing in the joy of one another’s traditions and cultures, and celebrating the incredible diversity that has come to define the city we all call home.
That’s why I was delighted to step forward with an additional £4.66m of funding – more than triple the amount we provided last year – to help ensure Londoners and visitors could once again enjoy this incredible event. The money we made available was vital for supporting organisers to implement increased safety measures, including doubling the number of stewards and allowing more signs and temporary CCTV cameras to be installed.
The 60th anniversary of carnival is a landmark moment for London and I was determined City Hall should pull out all the stops to assist because it’s also a reminder of how far we’ve come as a city.
From the late 1940s, thousands of Caribbean migrants sailed to London as part of the Windrush generation, to help rebuild a postwar nation on its knees. Despite coming at Britain’s invitation, however, many of the new arrivals found themselves unwelcome in their new home. Forced to live in cramped, poor-quality housing, they were frequently excluded from public spaces and jobs, and subjected to widespread racism and abuse – fuelled by the far right and fascist groups who sought to stir up hatred and division.
In 1958, racist violence erupted on the streets of Notting Hill, with Black Londoners attacked and homes damaged. The following year, Black Londoners across the city demanded justice after the police failed to properly investigate the racist murder of Kelso Cochrane, a young carpenter from Antigua.
It was in the face of this appalling racism and violence that the seeds of carnival were planted. First, Trinidadian activist and journalist Claudia Jones decided to organise Britain’s first Caribbean carnival at St Pancras town hall. Broadcast on the BBC, the carnival used the power of music and dance to help heal a hurting community and show the rest of the country the richness and joy of Caribbean culture.
A few years later, local activist Rhaune Laslett organised a community fair designed to bring her diverse Notting Hill neighbourhood together. It was then that something magical happened. As their set finished, Russ Henderson and his steelpan band carried on playing as they walked up Portobello Road, taking the crowd with them. A neighbourhood party became a street procession – and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sixty years later, the seeds planted by Claudia, Rhaune, Russ and countless others have grown into something extraordinary. Today, London without carnival is almost impossible to imagine. It’s become a much-loved fixture of our city’s cultural calendar, and for many Londoners, one of the most highly anticipated weekends of the year.
But as the event has grown, the challenge of keeping carnival-goers safe has grown with it. That’s why this year I again stepped in to provide the necessary funding to support the delivery of a safer carnival. And let me be clear: as long as I’m mayor, carnival will remain where the local community wants it to be – on the streets of Notting Hill.
Our city has come a long way since those first celebrations. But we know that racism has not disappeared. Indeed, the frightening rise of nativist populist movements in recent years demonstrates that the urgent work of tackling prejudice and building a fairer city is far from finished.
But what carnival’s founders understood is the extraordinary power of culture: to challenge racism, build understanding and turn strangers into neighbours. They responded to a moment of division and fear with unadulterated joy – and in doing so, they helped shape a more open and inclusive London for all of us.
So to everyone who has carried carnival forward over the past 60 years – the pioneers, organisers, masqueraders, musicians, costume-makers, volunteers, police officers, paramedics and generations of Londoners who have made it their own – thank you. Here’s to another 60 years of celebrating our incredible communities and this beautiful city we have built together.
- Sadiq Khan is mayor of London
Credit: theguardian.com
