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Carnival is we ting!
Carnival knowledge It is the promise of a spectacle to shock and seduce the senses that attracts millions to Notting Hill each year. But there are five disciplines that undergird Carnival's success.
Masquerade
Today, masquerade is a form of visual and musical story telling. Typically, small groups gather together, decide upon a theme, work out the costumes, dance and music to best express it, and then perform and parade before the crowds on the festive days. Every year, it has been estimated, one million hours go into the creation of ever more elaborate and colourful costumes. Many thousands of pounds are spent. CalypsoCalypso Songs, tales and popular critical comment, called calypso, are also essential ingredients of carnival. Traditionally a Trinidadian art form, the stories sung by calypsonians, or calypso singers, came under close scrutiny by colonial officials. As Robin Deneslow puts it: "police would even get on the stage next to a calypsonian, checking each word". Steelbands Steelbands Steel bands of Caribbean origin are another component of carnival. The bands make music on the steel pan, a percussion instrument made from discarded oil drums. The drums are cut to different depths to make the pan. The flat top is hammered in and divided into sections. Once tempered the pan responds with a wide range of notes when struck with the rubber knobbed short stick. The infectious sounds of steel bands were first heard in the UK when the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra came to celebrate the Festival of Britain in 1951. Soca Soca is the name given to the irresistible fusion of Soul music and Calypso. It is the undeniable heartbeat of Carnival, as Soca mobile groups pulsate their way around the Carnival route. Sound Systems Sound Systems were introduced into the Notting Hill Carnival during the last two decades. Typically they are like open air discos worked by DJs with ward-robe sized speaker boxes, customised electronic gadgets, and bass lines loud enough to make your ears pop. After decades of musical street warfare, the sounds of reggae and roots rhythms occupy the central streets. The sounds of Soca and Mas, Calypso and Steelband dance their way along the traditional Carnival route. Sound Systems are now officially recognized as the fifth element in the Carnival experience. Competition and profit have their roles in Carnival also. Performers and designers compete for awards and acclaim. Profits from sales of the most popular songs can bring substantial reward to composers, producers and recording artists. Back to list
Recent History 1958/59 An important and difficult period for blacks in Notting Hill and inner city London. Need for black labour decreased. Widespread discrimination in public and private housing. Politicians and public call for immigration control. Racial attacks on black people and their homes. Kelso Cochrane, a West Indian carpenter, murdered. Seeds of Carnival sown by Claudia Jones, veteran Trinidadian political activist and editor of The West Indian Gazette. Held at Seymour Hall, West London, in the presence of Sir Learie Constantine, the event symbolised the determination of the black community to survive and succeed in Britain. 1965 Marks the first official year of the Notting Hill Carnival. Inspired by "the pan", mobile steel bands perform through the streets, and crowds Play Mas' in the Grove district of Notting Hill. British press and authorities shocked by black crowds and their costumed pageantry. 1972 Carnival Development Committee formed. Stop and search police procedures protested. Mangrove restaurant and Frank Crichlow, a Trinidadian, come to symbolise black urban resistance. "The judge says he has 35 years of experience. We say we have 400 years of colonial experience". 1974 Sound systems added; more steelbands and reggae music; and 100,000 people Play Mas' on the streets. Support by "Black London" BBC radio programme host Alex Pascall helps keep Carnival alive. 1976 Carnival established as a major event in the lives of black Britain, and 250,000 people take to the streets. Amidst all-white protests and rising black anger, riots flare in the wake of rigid policing procedures.  1977 Selwyn Baptiste, Victor Crichlow, John La Rose, and Darcus Howe play important roles in the Carnival Development committee. However, a Carnival Arts Committee is formed by a splinter group. 1981 Carnival Arts Committee becomes dominant group in carnival affairs. 1984 Alex Pascall takes chair of the Carnival Arts Committee. Over next four years he is responsible for public education about the carnival arts, and the spread of interest in carnival around Britain and into Europe through the Foundation for European Carnival Cities. 1988 After a stormy meeting of the CAC, Claire Holder, a Caribbean-born barrister, takes chair of newly-formed Notting Hill Carnival Enterprise Committee. Police impose 7:00pm curfew for bands and sound systems. Fears of take-over of the carnival by alliance of business, police, and government authorities, and consultant accountants Coopers and Lybrand. 1989 Claims of heavy-handed policing, and criminalisation of black youths by the media and public opinion leaders. Shift begins towards increased white and tourist spectators in a "crime-free" holiday atmosphere. Michael La Rose and concerned carnival supporters form Association for a People's Carnival to expose and combat these trends. 1997 Notting Hill Carnival weekend draws an estimated two million people (two-thirds white and tourists) on to the streets. Local carnivals become permanent fixtures in UK and European cities. 1998 On August Bank Holiday Weekend the pleasure and contradictions of Carnival will be on show once again. Now in its 33rd year, there will be more activities, celebrities, exhibitors and new products than ever and also more unresolved questions about the black urban experience. Back to list
Quotable quotes - Voices of the Unheard "Hammerblows on metal are acts of love but listen well for tones of rage and hurt". - John Agard, Mangoes and Bullets. Selected New Poems 1972-1984. Serpents Tail, Pluto Press, London 1990. "The assets of immigration--the acquisition of new cultural experiences, art forms and attitudes--have so far been only minimally recognised, and far less encouraged. If they were, Britain would gain a far richer cultural scene, and would moreover be giving minorities their due. Unless that happens, there is no justification for calling Britain a multi-cultural society." - Naseem Khan, The Arts Britain Ignores: The Arts of Ethnic Minorities in Britain. London, Arts Council of Great Britain 1976. "The black people in the West Indies have produced all the culture we have, whether it is steel band or folk music. Black bourgeoisie and white people in the West Indies have produced nothing. Black people who have suffered all these years create. That is amazing." - Walter Rodney, The Groundings with my Brothers. London: Bogle-L'Ouverture, 1969, p.67. Carnival is "passionate and celebratory". It is also "the most expressive and culturally volatile territory on which the battle of positions between the Black Community and the State are ritualised". - Kwesi Owusu and Jacob Ross, Behind the Masquerade: The Story of the Notting Hill Carnival. Arts Media Group, London. 1988, p.5 "In Trinidad, carnival emerged as a cultural symbol of the emancipation of black people from slavery." - Kwesi Owusu, The Struggle for Black Arts in Britain: What Can We Consider Better than Freedom. Comedia, London. 1986 "(In Trinidad) Carnival and calypso remained the preserve of the black working population (although Europeans and other races participate) until sanitised, given respectability and appropriated by the middle class". - Amon Saba Saakana, The Colonial Legacy in Caribbean Literature. Vol.1. Karnak House, London 1987, p.28. "In this little island much of the trash of western culture is taken, adapted and reborn in forms that are unique and original." - Peter Minshall, Trinidadian carnival designer, in World Music. The Rough Guide, London, 1994, p.504 Further Reading:
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