Notting Hill

Carnival '22

Date Taken: 29th August

Recipe Used:

After all these years of wanting to take the pilgrimage to Notting Hill, it’s fitting that it came at a time where it hasn’t been hosted in three years.

Reportedly 1.3 million people congregated to this one area in West London to celebrate the biggest Carnival in Europe; built on the foundations of Anti-Racism, Trinidadian flair and Jamaican Soundsystems.

For me personally, it was something I’ve wanted to experience but never did for various reasons. I took 217 photos and edited just under 100 of them.

Those customarily will come with some words on my experience, the people that experienced it with me and general thoughts on everything to do with NHC.

Let’s begin with the people I attended with, all experiencing NHC for the first time:

So you know D by now, a mainstay at this point. The other is James who me & D went to high school with. And then Jashima, who has also been in a previous post you can peep here. She knows when to pick a time to come from across the pond.

There was a 5th member of the crew, but we’ll get to her soon. Next, I want to give some words on the Carnival experience…

Like a festival, it’s practically impossible to experience everything. It wasn’t until a day after I realised how much we could’ve seen but didn’t. We didn’t even crack the 2nd half of the designated area.

We tried, but the crowd tsunami of people following the parade were coming down so… Yea.

To be mildly critical for the moment, it’s very easy to boil NHC into two things: A walking simulator and a large-scale social experiment on how crowds move.

There was a point during one set we were at where we attempted to move through the crowd and for the first time in my life, experienced a literal gridlock of people moving one way, people going the other way and people just standing there.

It took at least five minutes to get out and 10 minutes for the music to get put back on.

Maybe I’m being a wet blanket, but this is an issue I feel could be easily solved with a little planning that doesn’t involve police sheeping crowds about.

Side Note

Is this Dizzee Rascal?! He was there, even performed apparently, but I took this in hope my camera could catch what my brain couldn’t comprehend quick enough.

I’ll chalk the gridlock as a symptom of an event returning after years out. There were a lot of people about in the peak hours.

Guess who I bumped into!

If you saw my Blues100 @ The Jazz Café post, you might remember this face. NK-OK – half of one of my favourite acts right now – Blue Lab Beats! Pleasure to meet you sir.

Okay, now let’s talk about the things I loved about the whole thing… The next set of photos are ones where I simply love what they bring to the overall vibe of the Carnival. Smaller sounds on the streets, the abundance of food stalls and locals lending services out of their own home!

I loved the localised elements of the day. For me, it epitomises the community feel NHC provides.

Oh, you know what. One more thing that irked me.

Why is nitrous huffing still a ting?! You’re at NHC, just bun weed!

Anyway… Let’s talk about my favourite moment.

Bless these brothers above man. They were jamming in front of us and we were reciting Snoop Dogg with full force. I want that blue shirt low-key.

And since we're talking about people around, the next set – the biggest one – is photos I got of the myriad of fly people.

So as I said, NHC is a walking simulator, and when you’re me, a notoriously slow walker, that can slow down the pack. Luckily, I had a North Star that kept me tethered to the group: Brinelle.

Shout to the random dudes coming through for a photo and big up Brinelle for looking out for me.

Did I mention I was high during all this? Sensory overload is a ting.

Anyway. A rare thing happened in the dying hours of the Carnival, someone offered to take photos of me!

I don’t ask for photos to be taken of me with Gina, it’s not why I started all this. But big up Jashima for insisting on taking some. The next set is all Jashima: