uppercase F

Carnaval in London! August 25, 2008

I went to the Notting Hill Carnival today. I can post pictures of it here, but it’ll be fairly impossible to convey the insanity. The carnival is kind of like the Brazilian Carnaval, but planned and executed by British people. So less sexy. The whole area of Notting Hill is taken over by the festival, with parades and music and dancing and drinking. There were different stages for different kinds of music, with DJs playing some really amazing stuff through the largest speakers I’ve ever seen in my life. There was a moment where a DJ started playing some James Brown and everyone just started dancing in the street. Amazing.

It seemed like the entire city was in attendance, with it taking a good half an hour to move a block in any direction. For some reason the carnival was really Caribbean oriented, with lots of the floats and music reflecting some Caribbean island motif. Neither me nor my roommate could figure out the reason for this, or the reason the carnival takes place at all for that matter, but it was really really cool. Considering I had fun despite the heinous train journey to and from the place, I’d say it was pretty successful.