Notting Hill Festival

August 26th, 2002

Notting Hill Festival is a huge street parade attended by millions of people each year. The costumes are beautiful and the music is everywhere. The food is plentiful, including choices like chicken curry, jerk chicken, jamaican patties, fried plantains, mangoes, coconuts, beer, and rum. The carnival lasts a couple of days with a children's festival and an adults festival. Over 7500 people participate in the festival each year.

Here's a little history from the carnival website www.thecarnival.tv... "This great festival began initially from the energies of Black immigrants from the Caribbean, particularly from Trinidad, where the Carnival tradition is very strong, and from people living locally who dreamed of creating a festival to bring together the people of Notting Hill, most of whom as immigrants, were facing racism, lack of working opportunities, poor housing conditions resulting in a general suppression of good self-esteem." "In Trinidad, during the days of slavery, Black people (slaves) were forbidden to play musical instruments and wear costumes, apart from when the traditional imported European Carnival took place, six weeks before Easter. On those occasions their participation was limited to providing entertainment for their masters. It was also known that slaves were forbidden to be in the streets after dark unless they were accompanying their masters. When the Laws were repealed and freedom from slavery was announced in 1833, the slaves took to the streets in song and dance, indulging in their culture and using their artistic skills to mimic their masters and pour scorn on the system that had had them enslaved for so long."

The End

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