Colourful costumes, dancing and music filled the streets of London as Notting Hill Carnival returned for another spectacular weekend. Europe's biggest street party kicked off over the summer bank holiday weekend, celebrating Caribbean culture and history with an estimated one million people expected to attend.
The festival began early Sunday morning with the J'ouvert celebration, where revellers covered each other in paint, coloured powder and chocolate. Only The Standard reports the J'ouvert festivities specifically started at 6am Sunday morning.
Children's Day and official celebrations
Children's Day took place on Sunday, followed by the main adult event on Monday. The festivities commenced on Great Western Road, where judges watched the colourful float procession from their viewing stall.
Festival chairman Ian Comfort expressed relief to the crowd that the carnival was happening after its future faced jeopardy due to funding challenges earlier this year. The Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, Tom Bennett, welcomed "friends" from across the Caribbean, saying: "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."
Vibrant parades and performances
Fast-paced drumming announced the arrival of the first parade, decorating streets with flutes, brass instruments, steel drums, dancers and costumes including giant colourful wings. Flags from Venezuela to Trinidad draped across dancers' shoulders as they cheered down the road.
Adults and children adorned in jewels, glittery wings and elaborate headdresses danced through the streets, followed by floats pumping out bass-heavy music. The Paddington Arts float carried the message "Let's Dance Not Fight" as performers dressed in iridescent purples and blues celebrated their "Under The Sea" theme.
Food, music and community spirit
Side streets buzzed with food and drink stalls serving fragrant jerk chicken, curry goat, Red Stripe and rum punch cocktails. Towering sound systems and stages, including one for BBC Radio 1 Xtra, played reggae, dub and drum and bass as costumed revellers danced around them.
TV chef Big Zuu, 30, who has attended carnival since he was one year old, emphasised the event's significance: "It's a celebration of black culture in England which we need right now. We have got these idiots putting up English flags. We're all British, we are part of Britain, this is a multicultural country. This is the best celebration of multiculturalism in the country."
International appeal and security measures
Claudette Sparen, 61, from Curacao but living in Holland, praised the atmosphere after attending for eight of the past 25 years: "The people are so nice, so polite, so happy - they are the best people I have ever met. It's bigger than before and there are a lot of young people. Everybody is having fun and you see different culture together."
About 7,000 police officers were deployed across the capital for the weekend. The Metropolitan Police implemented live facial recognition technology on approaches to the carnival and installed screening arches at busy entry points, using stop-and-search powers to prevent weapons entering the event.
Grenfell Tower remembrance
All major music and sound systems fell silent at 3pm for three minutes to commemorate those killed in the Grenfell Tower fire. Only The Standard reports this year's silence also remembered recent carnival fatalities, including two people stabbed in 2024. The tower, still clad in scaffolding, looms over the carnival route as a poignant reminder.
The annual celebration has been running for more than 50 years, continuing its tradition of bringing Caribbean culture to the heart of London through music, dance, food and community spirit.
Sources used: "PA Media", "The Standard", "independent" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
