London Photographer Blog, Photograph of the Day, London photo exhibition of the month, Submit your photography to Ravish London, Buy this photograph on a t-shirt!
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| Corn on the cob at Notting Hill Festival, Children's Day, 2007, MW, Buy this Photo. London Photographer Blog, Photograph of the Day, London photo exhibition of the month, Submit your photography to Ravish London, Buy this photograph on a t-shirt! |
| Notting Hill Carnival @www.ravishlondon.com Notting Hill Carnival is one hell of a carnival. The Notting Hill Carnival has been taking place in London, on the last weekend in August, every year since 1965. Originally a Caribbean carnival heavily influenced by the Trinidadian tradition, it retains the Caribbean feel as its dominant motif, and you’re unlikely to ever see so many black writhing, twisting, grinding bodies as you will on that weekend. But there’s plenty of Latin flavours, middle class white people walking around in sandals. The carnival was first conceptualised as a dream of creating a festival to bring together the people of Notting Hill, most of whom were facing racism, lack of working opportunities, and poor housing conditions resulting in a general suppression of good self-esteem. How times have changed. Notting Hill is now a well-to-do area, with neighbours complaining about the noise, rubbish and oh, ‘inconvenience’. There’s a great range of food, and it’s a special opportunity to try out Caribbean cuisine, the fish is especially good. According to one Carnival website six disciplines go to make up the carnival as we know it today. Mas' (masquerade), Steelband, Calypso (political, social and satirical commentary, set to music), Soca (the traditional music of Carnival, a fusion of Soul and Calypso), Static Sound Systems, and Samba all play their part in the Carnival. There is some lecherous about all the writing that often goes on, which may offend, if you are not used to that kind of thing. The Carnival definitely reaches a Sodom and Gomorrah point. A Sudanese friend of mine, who went to the carnival, said on seeing all that grinding, that he was ashamed of black people. I can see what he means; it is a little bit grotesque and tasteless. I remember in 2003, seeing one guy shouting to the crowd, with his hand on the naked breast of some scantily clad girl who was moving her body slowly in front of him. It was embarrassing. Especially for the girl who I wasn’t convinced really wanted to be doing that, its just it was a cliché, a role she had to play. Mind you, in 2008, I saw a crowd of people of different races in a group grind on the floor, skinny boys and fat girls. I just laughed and tried to take a photo - I guess my fire for moral standards was waning. Sunday is the quieter of the two days, ‘children’s day’ they call it, the day when there is almost enough space to move and get a bit of food. Monday is hell; so busy. Difficult if you don’t like being suspended in crowds, rubbing up against other peoples' bodies. Every now and then you get a gang of youths, usually black, barging their way through the crowd, disrespecting everyone – (what do you expect when we feed them a stream of MTV Bass all day). It's very intimidating. They are the kind of scum that ought to be making postal bags in some prison labour camp in Burma. I once saw this meathead, a 14 year old white skinhead, five foot two tall, but the same in width too, with a scowl on his face which had been drawn in permanent marker, walking his dog in the crowd, had to be to cause trouble - he looked like a right little racist in the making. The carnival procession consists of a number of huge lorries, which move slowly around the streets of Notting Hill. There’s also a number of stationary sound systems playing reggae, rnb and dub. The dub sound systems are always an interesting mix of withered Rastafarians and unshaven white thirty year olds. The trains of young black youth who pass through, schooled on R&B and MTV, look like they’re passing through a House of Horrors. By the end of the Sunday night, the streets of Notting Hill, with the night coming down, and the smoke of barbecues being extinguished in the air, and the litter everywhere, looks apocalyptic. The Carnival has had a violent history. In 1976 one hundred police officers and sixty odd carnival goers had to be taken to hospital. Lots of people, hot sun, drugs, young angry men, alcohol and police. Not a good mix. The Daily Mail, conveyors of truth and unbiased reporting, claimed that in 2007 the police had foiled a plot to wage a violent gang war at Notting Hill festival. Apparently police raided a house and found an arsenal of weapons including a handgun, CS gas canisters and stun guns. Quite where the evidence was that the guys were planning on using these weapons during the festival I don’t know. Could it just be another scare story propagated by the loud speaker of the upper classes, the Daily Mail? If the story is true, carnival goers have got a lot to thank the police for. It will only need one hideously violent carnival for the whole thing to become history. Funny, Carnival is a laugh, bit is also reminds you of how evil and nasty we can all be. |
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