The United Nations of Fun By Loretta Henry
| LILT
NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL '97: The United Nations of Fun By Loretta Henry |
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| I have to say that I jolly
well had a smashing time at London's Notting Hill
carnival '96. It was as we say around these parts - the
bomb. I haven't seen most of the Caribbean style
carnivals of the world by far, but Notting Hill left me
seriously wondering - can it get any better than this? This
Caribbean festival in the heart of England is a black,
white, red, yellow, and brown testimonial to the eternal
hope that maybe we really can all just "GET
ALONG". Apart from what it must have looked like at
the Tower of Babel, I know I've never seen so many
shades, cultures and nationalities concentrated in one
place at the same time. At Notting Hill, it seemed that
one simply needed to move it to the left or right to see
the byproducts of colorblind love all around. I was
surprised then to learn that unfortunately, London's
Carnival was marred by neo-fascist disturbances in the
early eighties, but I should not have been. A world as
racially harmonious as the one I experienced at Notting
Hill, has got to be a bigot's worst nightmare.
Fortunately for us though, there seems to be little,
including crazed pea-brained fringe groups, that can keep
this carnival from growing bigger and better every year. This festival should be called " the United Nations of Fun", for at the Notting Hill Nation: Anglo-Saxon, Caribbean, second and third generation Black-Britons - and that was just for starters. Black Muslims, White Muslims, Arabs and Indians from nations as varied as Kenya and Bulgaria, South Africa and New Zealand, Japan and Columbia. It was like every flag of every nation exploded and out of the ashes arose the Notting Hill Carnival. What impressed me the most about Notting Hill is that these revelers from far and away, native and foreign, were not only spectators, but die-hard participants. Genuinely reflecting the multi-cultural flavor, which is characteristic of London, New York, Toronto and other International crossroads, Notting Hill has expanded to include groups participating from nations as diverse as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines in recent years. Yes, carnival will always be "we ting", but it is quickly becoming others thing too. "Anywhere I go outside of London, there is a great interest", said Lincoln Rahamut, designer for Masquerade 2000, one of Europe's most successful mas bands, who won 16 first places this year at Notting Hill. Rahamut, also said that nowadays over half of the groups participating in London carnival are people of non Caribbean origin. There is something incredibly freeing about being let loose in the middle of so many throngs of new faces who were so different, but yet so united in their singular pursuit of good times. Everybody kept talking about vibes and atmosphere and I was not the only one who was thoroughly taken with the exotic diversity of this 31 year old festival. A first time attendee from Scotland said that aside from following the steelbands, the best thing about Notting Hill was "the different sorts of people chilling out together." This was the case on the day we made our own free-formed procession through the Children's carnival. In the middle of the "Scenario", one of the 45 sound systems stationed throughout the parade route, the scene in progress at the intersection of the scene in progress at the intersection of Bondchurch and Portabello Roads looked like something right out of a really cool music video. |
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| Gathered
amidst towering speakers in the middle of this informal
street party, were fun loving souls of every imaginable
shape and color jamming to Cheryl Lynn's
"Encore." Watching this I remembered often
hearing about the reputation that the British have for
being a rather reserved crowd, but surely this has got to
be an example of gross exaggeration, for all I saw out
there were hundreds of thousands of free spirits doing
their own thing - rainbow style! British reserve -
rubbish! Its strictly for the changing of the guards but
all but impossible at Notting Hill carnival. I was
knee-deep in bacchanal and loving every ecstatic minute.
It was come one, come all, and if only for one fleeting
weekend every August, there is definitely something
special in the air in London's North End, where freedom
of cultural and artistic expression rules. This carefree
whimsy was also evident in the costumes of the
masqueraders, who were dressed as everything from a furry
blue cat to giant bananas. Diversity and the almighty dollar even got cozy at Notting Hill. Certainly there was shortage of Caribbean food and culture vendors offering everything from fine food to fine arts. What really made me do a double take though, was the abundance of Indonesian food (not really a staple of most Caribbean areas) that seemed to be quite popular and well attended. Once again reflecting the sophisticated cool of being enveloped in the co-mingling of virtually every culture in the world. Siobhan Goeghan from Ireland, one of a group of four buddies (including a South African, a Vincentian and a New Zealander) chilling out at Notting Hill could very well be this year's posted child for "The Notting Hill Carnival Rainbow Coalition." Although she has never been to Trinidad and Tobago - considered to be the mother of all Caribbean carnivals - she has actually had family living there for decades. Where else but in the Notting Hill Nation could you run into an Irish lass whose cousin left the emerald isle for America 60 years ago only to meet and fall in love with a Trinidadian-Malaysian. Her cousin has been living and loving in Trinidad ever since. Observing the mix shades and features along Ladbroke Grove, the main parade route, one would tend to believe that Siobhan's story was more rule than exception. The "Notting Hill Nation." Maybe we can all just GET ALONG!! ‡Republished with permission from So Yu Going to Carnival Magazine 1997 No.1 out of Brooklyn, New York in the USA (718) 953-4600 |
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