please empty your brain below

I went to the Notting Hill Carnival when it first started, even went to some carnival committee meetings, I kept going for a few more years. I stopped going when "Sound systems" seemed to be taking over from live bands.
Maybe they should insist on steel bands or other live music for the floats/ carnival in streets, and have an area (Wormwood Scrubs) outside for the sound systems to deafen each other.
On a serious security point, in the event of a terrorist attack (like driving a lorry at speed - or setting off fireworks), large crowds and narrow streets make an ideal combination for another Hillsborough.
I am no killjoy but has the time not come to review whether this event should continue. People should be allowed to enjoy themselves but not at the expense of the massive disruption to the neighbourhood and the need for huge police resources. The former have a legal right to enjoy their homes in peace and quiet and the latter have better things to do. To me steel bands are tuneless and noisy and should be confined to closed soundproof spaces.
Classic "I am no killjoy but..." comment there.
@Killjoy

I would imagine the carnival has been taking place longer than the majority of residents have been alive, let alone lived in the area.

It was well known when they moved there that this chaos happened annually. Whereas some were born into the area. Most residents seem to flee the event and I guess that is the reason for many of the problems.

The carnival-goers are certainly entitled to enjoy their city as well, if only annually.

The orginisation and management of the carnival and even the holding of the carnival itself obviously needs to be appraised.
I went on a trip in 2006, ten years ago. It had already jumped the shark, with more driunk and drugged people than sober and very little actual carnival. When we passed the police at the exit they asked how we found it and they more or less apologised and said "it's not like it used to be"
The Carnival is our way of punishing the criminals who are rich enough to live there. Poor things probably have to spend the entire weekend in Venice, or a friend's private island, like persecuted fugitives. But seriously, it would be better moved somewhere more spacious.
As I said in an earlier post I went to the very first Notting Hill carnivals.

I know some people who live in the area now and they hate the carnival because of the noise, the thumping bass from high power amplifiers driving huge speaker stacks on "sound systems". That is what spoils the current carnival for me.

The carnival is not at the time of year when other countries have their similar carnivals. Rio Carnival being the most famous. They have their carnival at the beginning of Lent. So does the carnival in Trinidad, which also takes place before Lent. The weather would make before Lent not a suitable time for the carnival in London.

I attended the Trinidad Carnival once in 1981. It did not have sound systems, had lots of steel bands, and many colourful costumes. It was organised with a planned out route starting in the streets and passing through a sports area where spectators could sit in the stands and watch the parade and finale. I stayed with a Trinidadian family whilst there and they wanted to put me in the carnival parade, "blacked up" to look like a local using a sticky cocoa mixture! I declined, for one thing it was too hot, and I did not fancy being covered in cocoa! happy days!
Watching at work on CCTV as people arrived at NHG station with hoods up and drawstrings pulled tight. Why would you want to dress like that on a hot day I wonder? It's not only the W10/11 areas that suffer but anyone unfortunate enough to have to use public transport on the day.
I don't go to Carnival - not my style - but uncounted numbers do. Lucky them, it's one weekend a year. I live next to Victoria Park and we lose several weekends annually, plus the month's restricted access for build-up and break-down. Carnival is in near-peak holiday time, so the disruption hurts the fewest.

All big events attract trouble, so managing that has to be a top issue. Changing Carnival to stop the few (disproportionate) disruptive number doesn't solve the problem.

One issue has to be the music - live music to keep the atmosphere going beats recorded material any day. Once you're caught up with real music, real people playing it, there's a different atmosphere.

Carnival reflects the multiplicities of London. It ain't for me, but it is for many others. I'd hate it near me, with Viccy Park disturbances on one side of me, and now West Ham on the other. This is part of being in a world city. I had three years of disruption for the (loathed, and close-to-corrupt) Olympics but so many others had so much from the Games that even this 'Miseryguts' tried to smile for a bit.

We need tolerance, we need this in perspective, we need to manage this to make it good for more, and bad for the fewest. Don't know the answers but LIVE music has to be a part of it.










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