It’s that time again, when the streets of Notting Hill turn into a sea of people forming the second biggest street festival in the world. If you’ve never been its (usually) a good natured event with music, food, parades, booths and people from all over London, Europe and the world. Hard to believe but the Carnival is 50 years old this summer which speaks to the resilience of a festival thats had it’s share of bad press and troubles. The attendance is always estimated but the 2 day event draws about 800,000 – 1.2 million people which is amazing. In the mid 80′s I lived just West of the area and for those 2 days in August there was an audible buzz rising from that area of London once you reached Holland Park due to the sheer volume humanity/levels of people. Sound systems dot the area with more than 20 set up the last time I attended and that was a good while back.

Carnival 2008

Clash references abound in the area and the carnival. I think it’s very relevant that members of the band lived in the area pre-during and post the existence of The Clash. If you spend any part of your life if West London you simply can’t avoid being part of the carnival at some point. If you’re in another corner of the world and simply want a flavour of the event check these:

Excellent guide to the event with maps and sound systems:

Londontown.com guide to the carnival

Official Site for the Carnival

I write about the carnival as it’s this weekend but also because Mick Jones will be appearing with the Rotten Hill Gang on Monday at Gaz’s Rocking Blues stage. In this interview Gaz Mayall talks about this and the carnival as a whole.

If you go – be sensible and be alert, it might be the biggest crowd you’ve ever been in. With that number of people you’ll always get a few bad eggs – and not all of them are wearing the uniform of the metropolitan police.  The police have one of the biggest crowd management duties imaginable. Hoping the rain stays away and Monday is supposed to be in the low 80′s

Tim