NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL OF ENGLAND

Notting Hill Carnival is celebrated in the west zone of London, England since 1964. It born because of the Notting Hill race riots during 1958. Several incidents against the Jamaican and Indian population of the place occurred in that year. Between 20 August and 5 September every night there was any quarrel. Until this 5, in which the police arrest over 100 people (between them there were also black people). Despite the fact that during all this time there were no deaths, a carnival was created keeping in mind that this sort of incident won’t occur again. At least it did not occur in Notting Hill any more.

The carnival is celebrated the last weekend of August. It begins the Saturday with a competition between bands of percussion, the Sunday it is made a competition of costumes and the children’s carnival and finally, the Monday there is a great parade of floats. The party is divided into six categories: masks and customs, Steelband, Calypso and Soca (I'll talk about them later), Static Sound Systems and Samba. All of them performed by the best artist of each discipline.

During all the weekend, streets are full of the Calypso (which is a politic and social critic and satire with music) and Soca (which is combination between Soul and Calypso) rhythms of the Caribbean. Besides all of these colorful events, there is a great sample of the gastronomy of places as Trinidad (an old colony of Great Britain in which this carnival was typical for mocking the customs of the Europeans). Some of them as jerk chicken, rice and peas and rum punch are the most known and delicious meal served.

After the official last day, people make parties around the city. If you go to visit it, probably you would have to pay for a ticket to enter. But it is a good form to continue the party.

2013 Carnival

Sources:

mardelossargazos.wordpress.com

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notting_Hill_Carnival
http://feedingkelly.com/index.php/2015/09/04/nottinghillcarnival/
http://www.thenottinghillcarnival.com/food.asp