Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival is Europe's largest street carnival, held every year in the streets of Notting Hill, London, over the last weekend of August. Born from an indoor event organized in 1959 by activist Claudia Jones and later turned into an outdoor street festival in 1966 by Rhaune Laslett, it draws on Caribbean carnival traditions, particularly those of Trinidad, brought over by the Windrush generation. Drawing several hundred thousand participants each year around flamboyant floats, mas bands, sound systems and calypso, soca and reggae rhythms, the event has become an essential celebration of Caribbean culture and its diaspora, combining pride, music and collective joy.