Colourful costumes, dancing and music filled the streets of west London for Europe’s biggest street party’s children’s day on Sunday and the spectacle will continue with the main parade on Monday.
The carnival helps celebrate Caribbean culture and history.
Festival chairman Ian Comfort told the crowd on Sunday he was pleased the carnival was happening after its future was in jeopardy because of funding challenges earlier this year.
And the mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, Tom Bennett, welcomed “friends” from across the Caribbean and said: “It’s one of the greatest street parties in the world … celebrating today Caribbean culture from dancing, music, costumes but also everything the Caribbean community has done in this borough and country.”
About one million people are expected to be on the streets of west London for the event, the Metropolitan Police said previously, with about 7,000 police officers on duty across the capital on Sunday and Monday.
The Metropolitan Police said as of 7.45pm on Sunday, there had been 140 arrests – 105 at the carnival and 35 on approaches to carnival as a result of proactive policing interventions.
Fifteen arrests were for assaults on police, with one officer requiring hospital treatment for injuries to their hand, while there were 21 for possession of an offensive weapon, 25 for possession of cannabis and six for possession of class A drugs.
Four people were arrested on suspicion of sexual offences and two for robbery.
The force said additional powers had been authorised which remain in force until 2am on Monday and again from 10am on Monday to 2am Tuesday.
Live facial recognition (LFR) technology – which captures people’s faces on real-time CCTV cameras – is being used on the approach to and from the carnival as well as outside the boundaries of the event.
Screening arches are also in place at some of the busiest entry points to the carnival where stop-and-search powers will be used in a bid to keep weapons out.
The annual celebration has been running for more than 50 years.
Credit: https://www.lbc.co.uk/
