This weekend is a bank holiday weekend (which means we get Monday off). It is also Carnival Weekend. The Notting Hill Carnival is the largest street party in Europe, and hails from the Caribbean (Trinidad originally). It involves masquerade bands, floats, steel bands, static sound systems and live stages. Oh, and 1.5 million people. And I moved into a new flat this year and it goes down my street (Chepstow Road - you can see it on the route map).
Some people don't enjoy the carnival, and avoid it much as they avoid the tourists who go to Portobello Market on Saturday, but I enjoy the carnival. It makes a large area of London a no-car area, which is great. I enjoy the music. I enjoy the dancing. I enjoy the weird food stalls. It's a good laugh. I enjoyed it last year even though it rained.
I'm going to party on Sunday (Family day) and go mad on Monday (Party day). I'm hosting post-carnival drinks ingy-style (bath full of ice and beer) at my flat, which will either be crazy or quiet. Will I change my opinion of the carnival now it goes down my street? Maybe. It was kind of one of the attractions of getting this flat.
Get back to yer roots, mon!
It's a lot like the people on St. Croix who live in Christiansted and disdain the semi-weekly Wednesday night carnival in Frederiksted [ where the cruise ships unload the hoi polloi ] by staying at home. I never considered moving to Frederikstead from Solitude Farm but I rode my bike into town whenever I was around for it since you can have a good time in spite of or even because of the tourists
Its a shame that insurance and penny-pinching has reduced regional carnivals to such small affairs - I remember the village carnival in Budock (population of a couple of thousand) involved hundreds of walkers and a dozen trucks as well as smaller floats now Cornwalls largest carnival had only 3 lorries, a handful of cars and about 20 walkers. The 3 bands were good but still not as good as during the 80's when everybody took part.
A.
