Thousands of people have been out on the streets of Notting Hill to celebrate carnival on the 75th anniversary of the Windrush arrival, with many draped in flags and shimmering costumes of feathers and jewels.
Sandra Hartman, 58, was among those who has seen carnival change over the decades since she started coming in the late 1970s.
“It’s great to know it’s still going – obviously the second generation are still involved in it, and now the wider population are too, including the non-Caribbean English,” the speech therapist from Harlesden, north-west London, said, sitting in a folding chair alongside her sister, Janet. The group came prepared, with freezer boxes of food and drinks, and set up camp to take in the procession and music.
“The costumes have changed: when we used to come in costume there was more of a theme, like one year it was a deck of cards,” she said. “A lot more research went into it. Things evolve, though.
“For a couple days it’s just euphoric and joyous – the whole atmosphere is one of beauty.”
Hartman, who has Grenadian heritage, stressed the importance of the event for its history. “It’s important to me because I know how it started with the emancipation of slaves. That element is still there, and that’s why it’s survived for so long.”
Many had journeyed from beyond London to take part in the celebrations. With a Jamaican flag over her shoulders, Leandra Foster, 20, from Walsall, was soaking up the atmosphere and watching the parade with her cousins, all of whom had travelled from the West Midlands.
It was Foster’s second year at Notting Hill carnival and she was excited to tell her Windrush-generation grandparents all about it. “My grandparents never came because they were always working away – but [they’ll be] pleased to see my pictures. They came over in the 1950s when they were like 18 and arrived wearing full suits,” she said, explaining that they settled in the West Midlands. “They had to share rooms at first because they couldn’t get houses, but then they did really well.
“They’ve stayed here for 60 years, so it’s good to see [the Windrush generation] celebrated so widely – we’ve met people from all over, today.”
Further along Westbourne Park Road, as smoke billowed from a barbecue, Daisy Shrany, 55, said carnival offered people a moment of freedom. “It’s a period of time to indulge in make-believe and escapism,” said Shrany, who works for social services.
“My first carnival was at the age of eight – I came with my mother. We’re from Trinidad, where carnival originated, and then it was not so much about sound systems. The ethos of carnival is about steel pans and soca, and those generations remember that and keep that alive.”
Shrany lives in Romford, but comes back to Notting Hill, where she grew up, every year, saying: “Here is where my soul is.”
Decked out in multicoloured feathers and leading a procession of dancers in the parade on Great Western Road, Patsy Hayward, 30, said she felt emotional to be taking part on the 75th Windrush anniversary.
The dancer was representing the London School of Samba in the parade and has been part of the Notting Hill carnival procession since she was eight. Hayward, whose mother is Jamaican, said: “I just cried earlier – the [Windrush] anniversary is about celebrating people who have been here through the struggle, some of whom are still struggling.”
Selling slushies with his friends from a stall with a Jamaican flag and a union flag side-by-side, Jason Jones, 38, has been participating in the festivities ever since he moved to Notting Hill from Jamaica as a child in 1992.
Every August bank holiday, a piece of the Caribbean comes to London, Jones said: “Today, it’s Jamaica everywhere.”
Jones, who works as a barber, is effusive about carnival’s potential for bringing people together: his aunt and uncle met at the event in 1989. “They’re still together and they’ve got five kids,” he said. “Carnival is for everyone. It’s all about the roots and history and culture, and getting everyone together to express yourself, free your mind, and dance.”
Amid groups of attenders swaying to the beats blasting out from sound systems, Nadika Brown, a 36-year-old nurse, took a moment to share why she has been making the annual journey from Birmingham for carnival since she was 19. This year, Brown was visiting with her husband, Darius, nephew Declan Watts, and his girlfriend, Breanna Youngsan. All were draped in Montserrat flags on Portobello Road.
“I was born in Montserrat but I’ve been here since I was nine,” Brown said. “This year, carnival is returning to how it was prior to Covid. It’s about uniting multiple cultures, ethnicities and different races – everyone coming together.”
