Notting Hill Carnival 2016 was a hot and sunny one!

The last 2 years at Notting Hill Carnival were rather hard work in the rain and the chilly temperatures but 2016 saw blue skies and a full burst of summer.  It's one of London's great events and a major feature in our diaries. 

I was taking a couple of guests around and they loved the sights, the sounds and the food. We saw the parade of costumes and floats which had more emphasis on samba than I've heard before, so was great for dancing.  We ate jerk chicken and saltfish with ackee on the kerbside, danced to the sound stages and got caught up in the raving crowds by Rampage but escaped intact! My guests loved it and thought it was an amazing to experience this side of London's culture but were glad to dive into the wonderfully calm Commander Bar afterwards to recover...

Here are a few photos to give you a feel of how much fun it is to spend a few hours in the carnival spirit.

My favourite carnival band are Batala. You hear them coming streets away with their incredible loud and fierce rhythmic drumming.  

How do they keep so cheerful, it's such a long day of dancing and smiling?

New this year - composting toilets - remarkably good....

I love the inclusiveness of the parade:

A hint of panto with this one:

Another marching band:

She matched the sunshine with this amazing head dress:

Not sure what the references were here but lots of green was fun:

Always lots of dancing at carnival:

I just had to include this one!!

It gets busy....

Getting covered in paint or chocolate is a favourite look.  These folk were trying to persuade me to join in with this group and be in the parade next year. Who knows...

It's called 'wining' not twerking and there's a lot of it going on...

Anything for the best view and to be seen...

In case you were not sure, Red Stripe is the drink of carnival

Many residents head to the country when carnival weekend hits the streets but others set up a rum shack and have fun

This truck wanted to dress up too: 

Very happy to pose in her great costume

Covered in chocolate and having a great time.  

So there you are, another Notting Hill Carnival is over and we're looking forward to 2017 already!

Bye for now,
Sue
@itsyourlondon
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk

Loving Notting Hill Carnival!

I go to carnival every year and still love it just as much - the music, the parade with mad costumes, the food, the noise, the people watching, the colours, did I say the noise?  Some residents of Notting Hill head for the country while others, like myself, make the most of one of the world's best street carnivals coming to their doorstep. 

Firstly the history bit:  the roots of the Notting Hill carnival are way back in the Caribbean in the 19th century, particularly in Trinidad, when freed slaves wanted to celebrate the end of of slavery and these traditions are carried forward into what we see now. Our carnival dates from the late 1950s/early 1960s when it started as a celebration of Afro-Caribbean cultures and traditions at a particularly difficult time for race relations. We have 2 women to thank for this amazing event - Claudia Jones and Rhaune Laslett. These days over 1.5 million people come to have a great time, watch the parade, enjoy the sound systems, eat the Caribbean food (mostly jerk chicken, goat curry, rice and peas and my favourite - ackee and salt fish), have a few drinks and dance!

The weather was great for both days and day one, which is the kids day was full of fun and families trying to navigate the crowds with double buggies - rather them than me!  I've picked a selection of day one photos for you to enjoy:

Waiting for the parade to start

Anyone can join it!

Great viewing spot

These kids were having such fun

Colours and feathers - and a head in the background

How heavy do you think this is?

Classic London routemaster bus getting in on the act

Cooking up a smokey BBQ

Even Dr Who dropped in with some famous enemies

This group weren't even in the parade, just turned up anyway

I said it gets busy....

There really is only one beer at carnival

Unusual window display in this butchers shop on Portobello

Beautifully made statue of The Pan Man

It can get very tiring

Great costume

A mime troop decide to  join in

Thumbs up from one of the parade floats

The happy face of carnival

 I was hoping to bring you some brilliant photos from day two of carnival and had a whole set in the camera but unfortunately I was the victim of a very sly pick pocket so the camera has gone! It's the first time in 11 years of going to carnival that this has happened to me so however careful you think you are it can still happen and you need to be on your look out. Thankfully I have a spare camera so I'll still be out and about taking photos of London for you.

Bye for now
Sue 
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
@itsyourlondon  

London's Olympic sized hangover!

We are having a summer like no other, as the Mayor of London's slogan tells us on billboards, leaflets and even T-shirts, but it's not over yet. We are just taking a breather at the moment and recovering from our Olympic hangover!

London 2012, it certainly is.....

That Olympic sized hangover is pretty big and hard to shift after the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics-  it's a bit like we have been mixing our drinks at a very long party. It was such fun to be in London for both major events with so much going on around the major set pieces thanks to the London2012 Festival and everyone else jumping on the bandwagon to lay on great side events. 

Here are just 5 of the great things I've enjoyed since the Jubilee kicked off on June 2nd which are unique to this summer.  It was hard to pick just 5 and they are in no order: 

1. The Jubilee River Pageant from Tower of London 
2.  Olympic Opening Ceremony - I got to go to the rehearsal which was amazing
3.  BT River of Music with Jools Holland, Beverley Knight and the Saxophone Massive
4. The flags of the world in Regent Street
5.  Urban Classics combo of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and urban artists including Fazer from N'Dubz

 

River pageant

Opening Ceremony

Jools Holland's big band

Welcoming the world on Regents Street

Fazer and BBC Symphpny Orchestra

The day after the Olympic Games closing ceremony I had so many people ask me: 'what am I going to do now the Olympics are over, isn't it going to be really dull?'  There were no more gold medal highs, no more strange sports to watch and become instant armchair experts on and no feel good buzz around London. We were missing our fix so what to do? Taking a deep breath we had to look ahead and see what was that appearing in the viewfinder - the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's biggest street party.  That'll do the job so I'm getting myself ready - Jamaican t-shirt and breads, loud whistles, cans of Red Stripe and a gang of mates to come along and enjoy the fun.

Lifting our heads to the week beyond Carnival, the Paralympics are coming and we'll be jumping back on the roller coaster of sport and hopefully cheering Team GB to lots of gold medals.

There is always something great happening in London and I'll make sure I bring the highlights in this blog.

Bye for now
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
@itsyourlondon

Notting Hill Carnival 2011 - what a blast!

Notting Hill Carnival is two days of madness around the streets of this lovely part of London. You'll find: hundreds of thousands of people; amazing costumes in the parade; incredibly loud sound stages; lots of dancing; a fair amount of drinking (!); quite a lot of police; great Caribbean food; stalls; something for young and old; and,  a huge amount of fun!

Enjoy the photos and look out for yours truly with a festive face painting!

Bye for now,
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk