The St Pauls Carnival that started in 1968 has traditionally been held on the first weekend of July. Last weekend the full carnival did not take place but, with a series of community events taking place with local schools, one of the organisers told the BBC it was a chance for the carnival to go back to its roots.
After Bristol City Council under mayor George Ferguson and the Arts Council withdrew their funding for the carnival in 2015, the Afrikan-Caribbean Association were no longer able to continue with their programme on the same scale. It wasn’t until 2018, on the 60th anniversary of what had become one of the biggest Afro-Caribbean cultural events that the carnival was able to return, under new management.
A separate organisation - St Pauls Carnival CIC - was formed and put on their first carnival in 2018. However, the full scale event that sees crowds of up to 10,000 has seen a series of cancellations due to the global pandemic.
