Notting Hill Carnival 2009

by Mrsmission4 | August 31, 2009 at 10:20 am

1466 views | 2 Recommendations | 20 comments

Around a million people attend the annual Notting Hill Carnival over two days. The streets vibrate to the sounds of Soca, Calypso and Reggae and the air is filled with the smell of cooking food from the hundreds of exotic food stalls. There is no better way to celebrate being a Londoner!

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Mrsmission4

at 11:12 on August 31st, 2009

Having probs uploading the photos for this. To view them on my Flickr stream fllow this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/19444829@N00/

Beaulieu

at 13:23 on August 31st, 2009

I am having problems uploading pics too.

Tina Kells

at 14:30 on August 31st, 2009

Hi all,

This is a known issue and we are working very hard to resolve it, please stand by.

Beaulieu

at 22:00 on August 31st, 2009

That's good, thanks.

Mrsmission4

at 01:53 on September 1st, 2009

Thanks Tina

Beaulieu

at 21:58 on August 31st, 2009

It felt like it was bigger than any year so far, the crowds were terrific.

Saying that it was very difficult to exit as there were huge crowds coming towards you, and huge grounds going back, and a lot of pushing and shoving. This bit didn't look organised properly. I was trying to leave late in the afternoon to avoid 'the latecomers'. I thought it could be a dangerous situation to be in a crowded situation with two sets of crowds going the wrong direction, it could trigger off anger. When we found a side road, to avoid the crowds, the police blocked it off. We didn't know how to safely exit as there were no signs. I was getting really fed up with being pushed and shoved. The police should have reduced the crowds by allowing people to use more of the side roads but they didn't. We finally went to a policeman to discuss this, but he didn't do anything.

Beaulieu

at 22:55 on August 31st, 2009

The food was great. We had some noodles, chicken and corn on the cob. The photography was amazing with all the colours.

Beaulieu

at 23:02 on August 31st, 2009

"Hundreds of thousands of revellers were lured out by the bright Bank Holiday sunshine to enjoy the sights and sounds of Europe's largest street party.

Police reported that partygoers were behaving themselves, with the number of arrests down on previous years.

By 7pm on Monday there had been a total of 133 arrests compared to 186 at the same time last year.

Some 220,000 turned up on Sunday for the children's parade. That number is thought to have at least doubled as the adults took centre stage on Bank Holiday Monday.

The normally genteel atmosphere surrounding the upmarket west London suburb was transformed into a raucous street party as the celebrations gathered pace.

The mood was good-natured and family-friendly as large numbers of children accompanied their grandparents around the street stalls.

There was high police presence at the carnival with thousands of officers, many wearing ear plugs, helping those who were lost, needing directions or simply wanted to pose for a photo with an officer."

I only saw one policeman have his photo taken (I thought people weren't supposed to photograph them). I also saw lots of stoney-faced policemen and women. They spoilt a bit of the community atmosphere by looking so frosty. They were like those dour officials in China. I also had a look to see if they had their ID number on the uniforms, pleased to say the ones I saw did have them. There were some drug dealers hanging about but I didn't see the police do anything about them or any sniffer dogs.

Another thing that stuck me, was how many people were overweight in the carnival. Not just mildly, but quite seriously obese.

Beaulieu

at 00:46 on September 1st, 2009

One stabbing, but lots of booze flowed. There wasn't an alcohol ban at the Carnival.

"The young victim was found collapsed in Monmouth Road at around 7pm with multiple stab wounds.

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We treated a 15-year-old boy for assault and have taken a patient to hospital."

Police earlier reported that the number of arrests at the carnival, Europe's largest street party, had been down on previous years.

By 9pm, officers had made a total of 193 arrests on Sunday and Monday, compared with 227 for the same time during Notting Hill Carnival 2008.

Among those arrested, 38 people were detained at Victoria mainline station.

Police believed they had travelled in specially to create disorder and arrested them "in order to prevent a breach of the peace".

Some of the people in the floats were drunk and disorderly. We weren't spot- checked for knives either by the police and I saw no one else being spot-checked, but I saw lots of police 'looking bored' when they could have been doing better things with their time and our money.

The best bit is during the day and I think the Carnival should close at 5pm when you often get the nuisance people in.

Beaulieu

at 00:57 on September 1st, 2009

"Building on the success of previous years, officers’ will be using stop-and-search and screening wands at the entry points to Carnival. Done with the full support of the organisers and the community, this aims to stop people who may be carrying weapons from coming to the event."

So they say they did a stop and search?

That must explain why there has been a stabbing.

And I don't think crowds of pushing and shoving people particularly is safe, either.

Crime rate was probably lower this year, as the police appeared to ignore some offences like the drug dealing etc.

Beaulieu

at 01:06 on September 1st, 2009

On Twitter one reveller said about the crowds:

"Went to the Notting Hill. Carnival. I didn't see what the police were doing apart from making it hard for the crowd to move around"

Beaulieu

at 01:13 on September 1st, 2009

Another said on Twitter that there were:

"gangs throwing bottles, never again Notting Hill Carnival we are going away"

Beaulieu

at 01:27 on September 1st, 2009

There were hardly any bins about and rubbish was piling up everywhere. Some of it was quite disorganised.

Mrsmission4

at 02:16 on September 1st, 2009

Personally I thought the numbers were down on previous years, noticably absent this year were the Polish. Sunday was fine as far as moving around but Monday is always more difficult. The police are tolerant of drugs (marijuana) as the problems are normally from drunks! The stoners are having too much fun to be nasty! Alcohol should be classified as a Class A drug!

Having been a carnival goer for more than 20years, I can assure you things are very cool now in comparison to the past. The carnival shows how multiculturalism actually does work in this country! You are right though about the police's miserable demeanor this year....I think they have been slated this year with regards to crowd control with unnecessary violence towards protestors leading to the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protest. Previous years have seen the police dancing and generally having a good time as well as ensuring crowd safety. Its a shame also that they are so bloody touchy about photograpers now! Still they did a good job as usual. The reason roads are blocked now is that it is more difficult for the trouble makers to disappear as easily as in previous bad years when violence was the norm for carnival .

As for the rubbish...thats how it is! Bins are good places to hide bombs!

As for me, I had a great time as usual and I'm already counting down to carnival 2010!

Beaulieu

at 03:13 on September 1st, 2009

I've been a few photos of multi-culturalism at the Carnival and look forward to uploading them. Looks like the NP upload is working. Will have to do it later.

I think multi-culturalism seems to work in that part of London but I can't imagine it working in Kent, there would be no end of letters of complaint. It is bad enough just having an indian takeaway here without the whingers at work:-) We have to put up with naff floats from the girl guides.

The thing it was so crowded, many of us felt like we were going to be crushed. It was really unpleasant. I found this to be very stressful.

Mrsmission4

at 04:12 on September 1st, 2009

I guess I've lived in London so long now I just don't see colour or culture just people. A very different story when I go back to visit Somerset though. The locals are suspicious and downright racist actually! I hate it which is why I stay here I guess, there are lots of problems with such a diverse mix but its preferable to the xenophobia I see elsewhere.