The world-renowned Notting Hill Carnival, a street party, began with vibrant celebrations for J’Ouvert.
From 6 am, festival-goers gathered in west London for J’Ouvert festivities, which means opening of the day, as they paraded through the streets and sprayed brightly coloured paints and powders to get into the carnival mood.
As the festivities got underway quite early, three men covered in paint were even seen dancing on top of a bus stop outside Ladbroke Grove station, close to Portobello Road market.
Europe’s largest street festival honouring Caribbean culture began dramatically, with hundreds of people gathering beneath a bridge to dance and throw paint into the air.
Some were dressed in blue overalls to protect their garments from the paint, while others sported their most colourful ensembles or took part in a custom from Grenada in the West Indies called Jab-Jab.
In a satirical celebration to acknowledge the negative effects of UK colonialism and the slave trade on Caribbean countries, they cover their bodies with black oil, tar, dirt, or paint, wear horns, and drag chains.
The police said that they expected more than a million people to descend on Notting Hill for what is one of the most significant weekends in the capital’s cultural calendar.
Partygoers are met with dazzling parades featuring masquerade dancing, soca, calypso, steel bands, and huge sound systems.
J’Ouvert was cancelled last year, but returned this year with the official opening ceremony, which started at 10 am Sunday.
With family-friendly events and activities, street dancing, and sound systems all day long, Sunday is Children’s Day Parade.
At 3 pm on both Sunday and Monday, a 72-second silence will be held to remember the Grenfell Tower fire victims.
Usually the busiest day, Monday is the adults’ parade, when revellers in dazzling costumes and waving flags will swarm west London for a lavish day.
During the carnival, police will be deployed in ‘significant numbers’ to deal with any trouble, with about 7,000 officers to be on duty across London this Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.
The Metropolitan Police said that it had already arrested 100 people and taken dozens of weapons off the streets as part of an operation to deter those who pose the greatest risk to public safety at this year’s event.
Additionally, screening arches and live facial recognition cameras will be installed at the busiest access points to identify weapons.
It comes after two people died days after being attacked in separate incidents during last year’s carnival. Cher Maximen was killed in front of her three-year-old daughter, and Chef Mussie Imnetu was beaten to death by charity worker Omar Wilson.
There were four stabbings and more than 103 arrests for robbery, violence, sexual offences, drug offences and possession of weapons last year.
Police were kicked, punched, pushed, spat at, headbutted and had glass bottles thrown at them in 2024 when 349 arrests were made – the highest total since 2019.
Residents and business owners have been boarding up properties along the carnival route in an attempt to lower the risk of damage.
Commander Charmain Brenyah, the Met Police’s spokesperson for the event, said: ‘The vast majority come to have fun and enjoy themselves, to celebrate Caribbean culture, to dance, to eat and to go home with nothing but good memories.
‘Regrettably, we know a minority come with less positive intentions, and in recent years this has played out in the form of serious violence, including three tragic incidents where lives have been taken.
‘The actions of this minority are totally at odds with the values of those who care passionately about Carnival, and we acknowledge those, including the event organisers, who have stood up to condemn violence and serious criminality in the run-up to this weekend.’
Simon Hill, Deputy General Secretary of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, told the Daily Mail in an interview this week that the two biggest concerns for officers were being assaulted and crowd crushing.
He said: ‘Officers are concerned about the crowd density. It is physically possible to be six feet away from a colleague and for you to not be seen or to not see them.
‘Officers are very much isolated due to density. In those isolated moments, then really they are at the mercy of the crowd, if you have people in there intent on causing harm to officers.
‘I’m especially concerned about some of our female colleagues who report being sexually assaulted. It’s just not acceptable. They don’t go to work to be sexually assaulted.
‘It must be dreadful for them. Some of our female colleagues are slight in build – they cannot defend themselves against a dense crowd.’
Mr Hill said officers worried about their ‘inability to protect the public’ in the event of a crowd crush, given video evidence from previous festivals shows the crowd ‘moving almost as a wave… of water’.
He continued: ‘It’s physically possible to lift your feet and be carried with the crowd in certain points. It’s a feeling of helplessness that they are unable to protect and prevent that. There’s also the fear that they’ll actually be caught up in it.’
Mr Hill said officers were ‘very much at risk of being victims of any crushing, as well as the public’.
Susan Hall, a Conservative member of the London Assembly, said in a bombshell report published earlier this month that the carnival in recent years had only narrowly ‘avoided a mass crush on the scale of the Hillsborough disaster’.
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has warned of the risk of a ‘crowd crush’ at the carnival, saying at a meeting last month that he had ‘seen images of some of the crowds at some parts’ of the event and ‘watching them made me frightened’.
Politicians have voiced their worries over possible crushes at the free event due to the carnival’s increasing popularity; some have even suggested moving it to Hyde Park.
Mr Hill backed the festival being repositioned to a park where it could be ticketed, although he said he accepted the ‘geographical importance of the event’ in its current location.
He pointed out that the existing road layout in Notting Hill has various trip risks, such as kerbs and drains, but a park would not have as many irregular surfaces.
Mr Hill also suggested a park would have better refreshment and sanitary facilities, adding: ‘The residents come back to their front gardens being used as toilets, and that’s not acceptable.’
He said: ‘I would be surprised if there’s any event in the UK that attracts a similar number of people confined to such a small geographical space.’
The annual festival has been running since 1966, and arrest counts have been on a rising curve since the beginning of the millennium. The total over the past 20 years, between 2005 and 2024, is now well over the 5,000 mark.
Some may argue that it should be prohibited because it contributes nothing to society. I disagree; it contributes far more to society than football and bars.
Notting Hill Carnival yields substantial economic benefits for London, with visitors spending on accommodation, food, and shopping, as well as the more expansive economic stimulus from this large-scale cultural event.
But the reality that homes and businesses must be secured speaks for itself.
These carnival goers never clean up after themselves, and the streets are left in a horrendous condition.
If people and businesses feel the need to board up windows to protect their homes, then perhaps it’s time to consider relocating the festival or cancelling it – somewhere where party-goers can’t make a nuisance of themselves or damage property.
Other festivals are held in fields where the crowds, noise, and attractions can be accommodated, so why not Notting Hill?
The hospitals and police will be very busy!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 