This shot was taken at last year’s Notting Hill Carnival and is one of my all-time favourites, There is so much to look at but amidst it all dead centre is this couple having the most blissful moment together and it sums up the beautiful vibe. I never posted this shot then or was able to present my usual gallery of pictures as took a dive shortly after the event and have never quite had the capacity since to go through them. I am posting it now as was not well enough to be at carnival this year. For the first time ever. I was gutted I had to bail and it was really tough but I have been at enough and there will be many more.
I am still sadly not in good enough shape to resume service and not sure when I will be so thought I would share this shot and drop you a line to say hi…I really miss doing this blog but have to be patient and wait till I am truly fit and able…so I guess I will see you then…
This was probably my favourite moment of the weekend ..definitely worth a zoom in. Got a lot of shots to come but might take me a little while to go thru..plus I need to recover too..please bear with…
The police turned up to police a carnival that had been cancelled
People in yellow jackets patrolled the area to tell people there was no carnival happening.
The shops were boarded up to protect outlets from the revellers that never arrived.
All in all it was fucking weird as hell. Everyone expected somit to be happening but in the end nothing did. This vacuum of activity created a highly unusual and deeply eerie feeling in the hood. Turns out The Notting Hill Carnival is so big that even its absence has a presence.
I saw one man bashing a drum walked up Portobello whilst blowing his whistle and one man briefly stood on a car and that was about it.
I also went to an extremely sedate officially sanctioned tiny gathering on the Monday and at one point, as we were leaving, 3 riot vans containing around 40 cops turned up.
It was symptomatic of the police presence overkill as they spent 3 days looking for arrests to justify their existence. We heard of a few people we know being stop and searched for no reason, even one guy who was out for a walk with his 7 year old son. Sadly and painfully predictably, they were all black.
I have been to many Carnivals in my time (too many to count – everyone bar one since 1995 if you feel like doing the maths) but this is the first one I’ve been to when they only people who showed up were the Police. We truly live in strange times.
My highlight of the weekend was our neighbours who had a party on the street for 2 days and kept the carnival spirit going. I wasn’t really feeling it myself but was glad someone was. Roll on 2021 is all I can say…
p.s good to be back. hope ya didn’t miss me too much ;)
99.9% of all attendees at the Carnival are just there to have as good a time as is humanely possible and being present at such an uplifting unifying experience means it is not that hard at all. It is beyond joyful to be a part of and to see people from all over London, all cultures, all backgrounds, all areas coming together to spend two days dancing on the streets as one.
And yet the media still continue to focus on the arrests. Around 300 odd this year which equates to 0.06% of the amount of people there, roughly a million odd. It is virtually nothing, same arrests as Glastonbury and they only have 200,000 people in attendance.
All the shots above were taken at the Disya Jeneration sound system which for 99.9% of the weekend was the most chilled beautiful peaceful atmosphere and nothing but positive vibes. It kicked off at one point on the Monday, apparently started by a girl scrap and it quickly turned sour as more and more people got involved and the street rapidly descended into aggro. What was joyous turned sour in a second. The police moved in to break it up but exacerbated it to a degree as hostility turned towards them. The sound system responded by shutting down the street completely which ended it and they told everyone to come back in an hour which they did and everything carried on as before.
Crime and violence is an element of society that cannot be completely eradicated. It exists and always will. You can reduce the societal forces that propel people into anti-social behaviour but most attempts to deal with crime is focussed on the symptoms rather than the causes so it can only be effective to a degree. But it is not the story of Carnival, it is just a miniscule part of it. And it isn’t the story of our society, it is just a very small part of it. But the incident showed how quickly things can go bad and how just one person can alter the entire vibe on a street full of thousands of people having nothing but a good time.
The majority of people, no matter where they are from, have no interest in anything but getting on with their lives and trying to have a harmonious existence. The news will make you believe different but that is just their focus. That is not to say there isn’t a rising crime element in the U.K which desperately needs dealing with but not in the way they are doing. 50% of youth clubs have been closed in London in the last 5 years due to council cuts and knife crime has increased double since then. These two stats are completely intertwined and we need to provide safe and available places for young people to go so they are not lured into a negative whirlpool they cannot escape from.
I will leave you with this photo to show the Carnival masses in action, dancing in the street, having the time of their lives. This is the main story of Carnival and always will be.
At Carnival this year, wherever you looked there was someone doing a balloon. Usage is definitely up on previous years. For the uninitiated balloons are filled with nitrous oxide and when repeatedly inhaled create an intoxicating feeling that last a matter of minutes. As highs go, its pretty lame and yet, it is being done seemingly relentlessly.
One of the main reasons for its growing consumption is that it is legal. No other reason. And for the record, it is not safer than illegal drugs, its actually more dangerous than even a lot of Class A drugs as it pushes all the air out of your lungs (which you def need for breathing) and can, albeit rare, kill you. But I think it just shows that this human ‘need’ to get ‘out of it’, to alter your mind state, to reach levels of intoxication where normal thoughts no longer reside & are subsequently replaced with a stimulating sensory experience should not, and should never have been, a criminal issue. It is a public health issue and rather than try to prevent it with illegality, which does not work in any significant way whatsoever, we must accept that is part of the human condition for a lot of people and try to manage it instead of demonising it.
We live in fucked up times and modern pressures are extreme & getting wasted might just be the only way people can cope with it. It obviously brings its own problems and is not a solution in itself but we must start treating it as the side effect of a greater issue. In the book ‘The Inner Level’ by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (their follow up to ‘The Spirit Level’) they show that drug use is much worse the more unequal the society and is a way to cope with feelings of inferiority and fierce status competition.
I have included shots of people doing selfies as the dopamine hit you get from people liking your photos on Instagram is as addictive as any recreational drug and also creates both a ‘high’ & a sense of euphoria when you receive the digital love and also the comedown when the feeling drops off. And just like balloons, the high is very fleeting and you must then chase the next fix to feel good again.
In 2015, there was a explosion (not literally) of balloons and selfies when suddenly you couldn’t turn for seeing either. I would actually say this year, from what I saw, that selfie taking is down overall (which can only be a good thing and I would love to think we had reached peak selfie) but balloons are definitely up. The shot below, which you may remember, features a ‘ballofie’ from that year (which I coined back then but weirdly has taken off) and yes, is a combo of the two activities, designed for the ultimate double hit.
I have also included it here as the shot and an accompanying story features in my, very soon, about to be released photography book: MYLDN – a streetview of London Life’ which is out next tuesday! Now, how’s that for a smooth link to a blatant plug? (and the first of many for the next few weeks as I do my best to promote the mofo, so soz ‘n’ all that..)
The first (and only time) I went to Carnival I wasn’t local and went with a crew and we followed the floats down Ladbroke Grove and had an amazing time and there was one guy in our group who kept trying to get us to hurry up so we could get to this sound system he wanted to go to. I didn’t really get it at the time and we fannied about having fun and eventually got to what I know now to be the Sancho Panza sound system on Middle Row at around 6.30pm and it was going off in a way I had just never seen before. People were dancing on the roofs of vans and on the walls and going mental on the street and it sounded pheneomenal and it was, in the space of about two minutes ,the best party I had ever been to.
Sadly it ended about half hour after we got there, but from that moment on I was smitten and from that year on I only went to the sound systems and never really bothered with the floats again. Not that they aren’t amazing as well but for me, to be dancing on the street in the middle of the day to killer tunes on killer systems with a jumpin crowd, there is no better.
Over the years I have danced at most of the sound systems at some point or another and have altered my hot spots according to my changing taste in tunes. When I was a house head I went to KCC, for vintage carnival tunes I go to Gaz’s Rockin Blues, or for some serious dub action there is the superb sound at Channel 1 and if you want to see a whole street go off to the latest urban beats there is Disya Jeneration where I usually spend most of my time these days…
My favourite used to be Norman Jay’s Good Times but it is sadly no longer there. I once did two 5 hour stints over 2 consecutive days with no breaks and on the 2nd day my ears blew and I have had tinnitus ever since but I have to say, it was kinda worth it. I couldn’t quite bring myself to sue Norman as he is such a lovely man…but how about you bring back the double decker bus and we won’t have to get the lawyers involved, eh?
There is always at atmosphere of nervous excitement and anticipation as people start to arrive at Carnival. You can see the locals bracing themselves for the mass of revellers that are descending on their neighbourhood. You see groups of mates getting into the spirit, spurring each other on. You see lone wolfs eager to join the pack. You see people with their guard up, not realising they have to let it down to properly engage with the event. Carnival is like life, what you put in you get back, what you project you find, when you let yourself go, you are rewarded…
When the dust had settled after this year’s carnival, all that remained was a fuck load of graffiti. They had basically tagged the shit out of the entire area. Almost no wall in the immediate vicinity seemed to have escaped. They scrawled and sprayed all over shops, properties, walls, phone boxes, even trees! You name it, they tagged it. Its basically like being invited over to someone’s house for a party then taking a dump on their carpet. My issue is not with tagging itself, although, unlike a lot of graffiti and street art, it has no aesthetic merit to speak of and is the human equivalent of dogs pissing up against walls. (will quit with the bodily function analogies) It’s just another form of territory marking. The only difference is you permanently deface things in the process. Actually by the sounds of it, it would appear I do have a problem with tagging..
However my main problem with tagging at the Carnival is that the local council will have to spend a ton of money cleaning it up and then they will use it as an excuse to say that its too costly and there is too much property damage and that will give them a reason to stop it. And we do not want to give them any excuse to do that so the main aim is to avoid that at all costs. So if you are coming to Carnival next year, just come and enjoy yourself and don’t fuck the place up in the process. Use the boards that are erected everywhere to leave your tag if you need to, just leave people’s homes and businesses out of it.
There is this notion that the area is just full of posh rich folk which is only true of a percentage of the residents. There is a whole community that live in W.11 that do not fit into that category at all and the real Notting Hill story is fuck all like the one with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in it. And yes, tourists still come to the blue door, 2o friggin years later, to get their picture taken in front of it. But that is not a true and accurate representation of the neighbourhood.
The tagging does feel like a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to the wealthy residents and an angry protest at the massive inequality present within this city which is valid but it is a misguided one for a lot of the places that get mangled in the process. And you have been invited to this area to have a party and a good time, so its a little disrespectful to than mash the place up.
I spent two days directly after carnival photographing every bit of graffiti that had been done over the weekend and ended up with nearly 300 shots all of which I have featured into this short 1 minute movie which will be on my Instagram page later on today (@babycakesromero) and here it is if you are not part of the digital picture party that never ends…
Am delighted to have some of my Carnival work featured in this exhibition at The Muse Gallery on Portobello Rd showing the history of the biggest street party in Europe through photography. Launch night is Thursday 20th Sept (tomorrow -sorry for short notice, no idea where the time has gone) from 6-9pm if anyone is around and fancies it…there will be drinks & tunes and a talk by local legend Lee Harris. Its on till 30th if you can’t make tomorrow..
If you need more convincing it also got a nice little write up in this week’s Time Out with one of me pics too..:)
It got chocka on the street real quick as it seemed that most of the people who stayed away on Sunday came on the Monday to make up for it. People were dancing from midday onwards and soon the party was jumping.
The street got so full at one point they had to block off the road. They had never done this before but it was pretty rammed so maybe it wasn’t such a terrible idea. Ultimately though, it created more problems than it solved as it generated a lot of tension between the police and the crowd that couldn’t get onto the street. Normally it just naturally dissapates as those that can’t handle it just leave. This has always worked in the past and so this interference in the natural flow of carnival just served to piss a lot of people off who in return were gave grief to the constables who would not let them through…
The police seem to be interfering in general more than they had in recent years which is strange to say the least as they worked out from previous experience that the more they muscled in the more more trouble it caused so why would they revert to a policy they know doesn’t work? The Carnival is a massive massive beast. You can’t control it, you just have to let it do its thing. You have to flow with it, not against it. It is always fine if you just leave it alone, but the cynic in me thinks they don’t want to leave it alone.
They want to stop it. They would rather it didn’t exist as its just a headache for them but they know they can’t just end it just like that so maybe they think if they show its a problem they can maybe persuade the authorities not to continue with it. They could never just stop it. There would be an outcry. But they can maybe slowly snuff it out. They already make it as hard as possible for people to get in and out, with what seems like a lot of unecesssary herding, but it feels like this is deliberate to deter as many people as possible. They are also making it harder for the sound systems to get permits and licenses and one casualty of this year was Gaza’s Rockin Blues which was not there this year, the first time in 42 years. They appear to be pricing people out of the market and this is how they will strip it down and shrink it. It is huge. Maybe it does need to be reduxed a bit but sadly it will be money that will dictate who stays and who goes which means that a lot of people, especially the local community who are such an integral part of it, might fall by the wayside.
99.9% of the crowd who attend carnival (apparently a million and a half people) are just there to have a good time and they have definitely come to the right place as the event excels at this. There is a tiny tiny minority who might be there for anti-social reasons but it is a minuscule fraction of the people present and this element exists at all times, in every society, bar none. It cannot be entirely eradicated. We are stuck with it but we don’t have to let it rule us. Over the course of the entire day on the Monday three people kicked off on the street and attempted to start a fight of some description. But they were all shut down by the security and peer pressure every time. They were contained, the music was stopped and each one was ejected from the proceedings. The crowd booed them. No-one was interested. No-one got involved. It was very professionally dealt with and that was that. Job Done. No police were involved. It was solved without them.
What I took from this is how easy it is for just one single person to derail everything, to harmony into discord and peace into violence. It is astounding when you watch so much joy stop in an instant just because one individual has a cobb on or can’t take their booze or whatever. I was however massively heartened to see how the majority of people just have no interest in violence in any shape or form. Most of us, nearly all of us, just want to hang out and have a good time. And we don’t care who you are as long as you want the same. And we refuse to let those few who do want to stir things up dictate how our lives are run. The party is going to continue, its just going to continue without you.
All in all it was another brilliant carnival and it is just such a massive celebration of life, pumped full of joy and is just incredibly uplifting and exciting. Dancing in the street in the middle of the day on a monday..when do you ever do that? Never. Which is why carnival must always exist. We need it. Human societies have always had annual events when everyone got wasted, partied for days and then went back to their lives, only to do it all again the following year. Maybe it was for harvest, or to worship the sun god or to celebrate whatever but it has been around since the beginning and it is integral to a happy existence. Every now and then you need to blow off some steam and so you might as well do it dancing your socks off at a sound system plonked down in the middle of the street.
I woke up at Midday (don’t judge) to see heavy duty rain pounding down on guys in flimsy waterproof(ish) jackets trying to put up the remainder of the disya jeneration sound system. On the street were a mere handful of very brave carnival attendees bracing the horrendous weather. It looked like it was going to be a washout. But ultimately you cannot crush the carnival spirit. It is more powerful than anything the skies can throw at it…
It stayed that way for hours and as a result it was probably the quietest carnival I have ever seen. The weather might have knocked out as many as quarter of a million people who stayed away as a result. You couldn’t blame em. It was grim but carnival was never for the feint-hearted. It is a magnificent experience but its a big beast and you have to be willing to get stuck in. Rain or shine. From the vibe on the street it was clear that this lot were not going to be put off by a bit of rain.
I did feel sorry for everyone who puts so much effort into putting it on and all the stall holders who are trying to make some money from the event, which is what the carnival was invented for in the first place. To give the local community an opportunity to earn some cash. After such a long hot summer it seemed a bit cruel but fuck all you can do about it. And soon enough, it didn’t matter. People were getting seriously stuck in to their daytime dance off. Normally the street is mainly used for walking along and here it was, as if my magic, transformed into a full-on street rave with a killer sound system with giant speaker stacks at either end of he road and around 2000 people jammed inbetween them all rockin out like their lives depended on it.
And just like in previous wet years the ones that didn’t shy away were the proper party people who aren’t staying away unless there is force 10 hurricane and even then they might still come along, just in heavier boots so they could still dance without getting whisked up in the air.
The rain did eventually subside and the latter part of the afternoon was dry and all those bold enough to come in the first place were amply rewarded by another spectacular block party from the Disya gang and Boiler Room.
The atmosphere was brilliant and nothing but good vibes all day. It was pretty full on as usual and everyone went for it big time despite it technically being a warm up day. You always get to the end of sunday and you suddenly realise, oh shit, this is just Part 1, we gotta do all this again tomorrow! Having just got back from Lost village, this marathon race weekend was just hotting up…
This year’s carnival was a magnificent display of humanity at its best. People from all over the capital and the country coming together regardless of origin, race or culture and going absolutely ape shit to big time tunes dancing their rocks off on the streets of West London. It is the ultimate celebration of life and despite the police and the media doing nothing but attempt to discredit it and show it in a negative light it remains a 99% positive vibe festival. There is always a microscopic portion of attendees who might be there for nefarious reasons but they probably wouldn’t even tally to 1% of the million plus population of carnival.
The media only ever seems to report the bad things that happen but they are infinitesimal compared to the relentless wave of good times from everyone else – there is and will always be a tiny percentage of people in every society at any given moment who want to kick up trouble so why does that always have to be what they shine a spotlight on? Why can’t they just highlight what an incredible unifying uplifting experience it is for those who participate? The truth is that London needs the Carnival. This city is like a pressure cooker and if we don’t all let off some steam in a fun way it will emerge in maybe less fun ways. Its like The Purge (if you have seen any of those films) only you don’t kill people, you party with them instead…
And as for the implied accusation from the police saying their heroin haul in Catford was somehow related to Carnival, I can say with great authority and absolute authority, no-one, not one single person is on heroin at carnival…and well done to Stormzy for calling them out on it. Actually one of the great things about carnival is that you can talk to coppers wasted and there is nowt they can do about it. So I took advantage and grilled a few for their negative portrayal of Carnival. One of them said to me: “well I’m glad you had a good time but its a headache for us”. I appreciate that but that isn’t really a reason to try to shut it down just cos you find it a bit tough to deal with. The carnival probably shouldn’t still exist but it does and its incredible that it has survived but I hope it continues for ever.
One of the most beautiful and heartbreaking moments this year was when they did a minute’s silence for Grenfell. It was so powerful and moving to see the revellers in the video above all stand utterly silent then break out into spontaneous and rapturous applause after. I felt so many had come to Carnival to pay their respects and that is why it was so important for it to be a positive experience and it was. It was a celebration of life in honour of all those who no longer have it. You will never be forgotten.
My only real gripe with the attendees is that the area was graffitied all over. This neighbourhood invites you in so you can party on the streets and then you deface them. The boards have been erected to protect properties and you can tag the shit out of them but not over people’s homes and businesses. That’s just wrong. There might be some assumption that everyone who lives in Notting hill is loaded but as Grenfell showed, this borough has both rich and poor living side by side.
In some ways it is very important for everyone to understand that the carnival was designed so the local community could earn a bit of dosh and we need to remember this area was once one of the poorest in the city. This annual event, which a lot of the newer more affluent constituents would like to terminate need to be reminded that they cannot whitewash the history and culture of this neighbourhood. If you don’t like it, don’t live here.
Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
To see the full gallery “Blocked Party” – please click here (no pics apart from one above featured in this weeks post)
The only news story you will ever read about the Notting Hill Carnival after the event is how many arrests there were. It is the only angle the mainstream media ever project. This year there were around 400 or so arrests. Massively up on last year. The reason? They gave police permission to do random stop and searches so that’s how they got their quota up and now there’s been an increase in violations the carnival is now up for review. What a surprise. It seems they would do anything they could to end it, I just think they don’t know how to.
If you have been you will know it can be one of the most joyful events on the planet. Mass daytime street dancing – its about as positive as the human race gets. It is us at our best. Yes people get wasted. Yes they make a mess but its only for 2 days out of 365 and we all need to let off a bit of steam now and again or else we’ll explode. They describe the behaviour as ‘anti-social’ but its the most social experience you could be a part of. Every walk of life, every age group, nationality and ethnicity all dancing to the same beat…sorry, what was the problem with this again? Which bit of that don’t we like?
There will always be a tiny element, that attend that are looking for and cause trouble. If you take the amount of attendees (roughly a million) compared with the amount of arrests it equates to 0.04%. Why should the focus be on them when the rest are celebrating life? We could look at the positives, we could see the overall good as oppose to the minuscule bit of bad. We choose what we think about. That is what shapes ourselves and the world we live in. You always have a choice and as Renton so succinctly put in Trainspotting: Choose Life. Choose Carnival (well he didn’t actually say the last bit, I did, obvs)
One of the my favourite moments of Carnival is on the thursday before as they do a steel drum rehearsal on All Saints Rd. It used to be on at the Tabernacle on Talbot Rd but they had to move it because of complaints from the neighbours. Just to put that in perspective – its on at 8pm for 2 hours once a year and is one of the most uplifting sounds on Earth – how twisted and bitter and joyless to you have to be to want to put a stop to that? I never understood why the Quiet always get the last word? They should be quiet! (That’s irony by the way folks). Just because they might have given up on living doesn’t mean we have to…
Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
I started the week with the carnival and am going to end with it as well as had to include this photograph. These two gentlemen are Italian tourists who I spotted waltzing drunk down Portobello Road all kitted up for carnival. Only problem was..they were a whole day early. They either got the date totally wrong or were just too hyped up to wait till the following day to wear their snazzy outfits. They tried to brazen it out and were even giving passersby drunken glances of contempt for not getting into the carnival spirit. I kind of loved them for that. They were probably going to go home and say how shit carnival was…just lots of clothes stalls and people sitting around drinking coffee…
By the way if anyone has ever replied to one of my email posts I have never received as is a donotreply address which comes straight from website (this is not abundantly clear). Anyway, would like to apologise if you feel you were ignored in any way and if you would like to get in touch please email bcr@babycakesromero.com or comment on the site itself. Chars!
Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
It chucked it down on Carnival Monday this year..it put off hundreds of thousands of people but those who came were the party die-hards who weren’t going to let a bit of rain get in the way of their big weekend. If anything, they seemed to enjoy themselves even more than usual, as you can see…
It was a true display of humanity at is best: playful, defiant, jubilant, harmonious and just a little bit wasted…okay, maybe more than just a little bit…
all in all it was a great year..excellent atmosphere, friendly vibe..more lovin than ruckin..more dancin than dicing…a drop in numbers and an overspill from the olympic spirit meant that carnival 2012 was, for the most part, full of fun party people up for a good time…which is exactly what they got…
