Carnival has always been important to me.
I used to boast that I’d been every year since I was born but my Mum put me straight on that one.
I can say though that I’ve been every year that I can remember.
When I was young I was just taken.
I don’t remember enjoying it much then because it was loud and crowded and my Mum would bump into people she knew and stand around chatting for ages while I got bored.
As I got older and started to go on my own and with mates, I began to love it.
I loved the bustle and the debauchery, the music and latent sense opportunity that came with over a million people determined to have a good time in the London sunshine.
I became more historically aware and then realised the significance of this annual party on the streets of west London.
Carnival started as a way for the newly arrived African Caribbean community to say ‘we’re here, we’re staying and we’re proud’ and has melted into a gathering of cultures and ethnicities celebrating each other’s company and trying to get off with each other.
On a good day, when the sunshines, the women wind and the rum flows, Carnival is London at its best.
Yet, over the years, it feels like some in London see Carnival as a nuisance to be contained.
There have been troubled years but recently the events have gone largely peacefully with just the sporadic incident. Sadly these incidents would probably happen whether Carnival were on or not.
Funding cuts, a lack of sponsorship and local residents complaining about the disruption have all put the event’s sustainability in question.
I’ve always thought it odd that people would move into an area and complain about the very event that puts their area on the map. Some people it seems move to inner city areas for ‘the vibrancy’ and cheap mortgages and then do everything in their power to sterilise an area.
In last week’s Guardian, Hugh Muir pointed to the difference between how London abides its Carnival while Rio revels in its one. He also pointed out that while Carnival costs something like £500,000 to police steward and clear up, the GLA estimates it brings around £93m the the capitol’s economy. This sounds like a good use of the public purse to me.
Tags: Carnival, civil unrest, London, police, riots, society
