An Insider's Guide to Notting Hill Carnival With George Brown

If you were taking someone to Carnival for the first time, what are the spots you’d make sure they don’t miss?

As much as it helps to go in with a game plan, you can’t help but go with the flow because good vibes are everywhere and internet connection can be a myth. 

Here’s my top spots:

J’ouvert — Kicks off around sunrise on Sunday –  steel bands and drummers emerge onto Ladbroke Grove well before the crowds arrive. The name means ‘opening of the day,’ and it carries some of the oldest and rawest roots of carnival tradition. Expect paint, powder and oil, so leave your new clothes at home.

The Parade — The beating heart of Carnival. The masqueraders spend all year on those costumes, marching for miles to the beat of soca all the way to the judging zone at Westbourne Park, where they give it everything. Look out for some of the traditional mas characters too, which can have their roots in African tradition way before carnival as we now know it.

Steel Pan — Oil drums shaped, crafted and tuned into magically melodic instruments. A different, older and more harmonic vibration than the sound systems. Panorama on the Saturday evening at Pleasance Park is the place to be.

Sound Systems — Over 30 of them, each with its own corner, crowd and genre. This is where you find your pocket of Carnival. Wander until the bass hits right. You might even catch some huge artists performing, particularly at Rampage.

Food — Follow the smoke and the queues. Jerk chicken, curry goat, rice and peas, festival, a cold drink. The food is as rich in its own history as it is flavour. Take it somewhere green and actually sit for ten minutes if you can – you’ll need it.

Carnival is known for its energy, but it’s also deeply rooted in community and heritage. What do you think visitors often overlook about its cultural significance?

That ‘celebration’ and high spirits are themselves an act of resistance. Notting Hill Carnival is a beautiful thing that emerged from real pain – the Caribbean community in the area faced years of racism, violence and disparity, shaken to the core by the murder of Kelso Cochrane. The history is unsettling, but NHC holds that truth alongside the beauty of our resilience and existence. By practising our culture so loudly, so vibrantly, so obnoxiously, we remind ourselves and everybody that this is our home, and we shine beautifully here. NHC contains echoes of our collective history going back generations – we practise these traditions in dance, masquerade, food and music to remember where we’ve come from and guide where we’re going. It achieves its goal of bringing communities together – as long as you understand the heritage and bring good vibes, to me you’re welcome.