Wacky, weird yet undeniably awesome, this Notting Hill Carnival will definitely bring out your wild side.
Every summer and in a corner of London city comes a street festival dedicated to celebrating diversity and to help overcome racial tensions. As one of the largest street festivals in the world Notting Hill is transformed from an upscale area into a loud, noisy, colouful and absolutely delightful street festival frequented by people from all over the city.
This wild carnival goes on for three whole days starting off with an epic and much talked about steel drum competition on the first day called the Panorama Competition. The next day is a day dedicated to all things kid friendly, from costume competitions to a kids parade, this would be a perfect day to take your children out to see the fair.
The next day, which is usually a Monday is known as Adults Day and should definitely be rated a PG-16 event. All the events that take place are adult in nature including the massive parade and masquerade parties. If you’re someone into world music you will be pleasantly surprised by the mashup sounds of calypso, drum n bass and samba. Since Notting Hill has a high Caribbean influence and population, most music and themes centre around Caribbean culture.
Expect to see a variety of beautiful and skimpy outfits on display. Skimpy rhinestone bikinis, g-strings, feather headdresses and the like. Don’t miss out on the “battle of the bands” which leads to a lot of body-contact dancing and Jamaican street-styles. Between all that dancing, jiving and selfie-taking stop by at any one of the food stalls to try out some the best Caribbean cuisine.
(Image Courtesy: thetimes.co.uk)
Attendance at this event has heightened over the years, with even Prince Charles giving the event a encouraging thumbs up for facilitating racial unity.