Notting Hill Carnival
On the tube from Goldhawk Road we feel the energy in the air: an aroma of weed, glitter traces in the carpeted seats, conversations of how the night before ended and where tonight may end. We’re in the right place. Pre drinks and smoking supplies stocked up at Sainsbury's before we head to Ladbroke Grove; we join the hoards flooding out of the station, police officers lining the streets. It's early but people are already giddy with the infective joy that is unique to Carnival. It is a hot end-of-August weekend, flashes of sequins on wings pass you by, leading the way as the crowds grow.
Our group convenes, picking up friends along the way, fuelled by Red Stripe and Magnums we move along through the crowds. Frantic phone calls to friends of all types, we stay at each stage for an appropriate amount of time, my music knowledge kets me down but I enjoy the thump of the bass nonetheless. Perhaps I just enjoy being with my friends, I think you would be hard pressed not to enjoy yourself in that crowd, something about carnival oozes happiness, an ode to British summertime. The smiling faces you see in these photos are faces of friends and strangers, people are happy, people are open and no-one judges.
I bump into people I haven’t seen in years in crowds of hundreds of people, we hug and say we have to catch up, seconds later they have morphed back into the crowd. Until next carnival when we’ll inevitably see each other again. Things wind down around 7/8pm and therein starts the search for an afterparty, we end up in someones house in Notting Hill. I don’t know who’s or how we ended up there, the same song plays on repeat as no-one knows whose phone is connected; we hung around too long, waiting for something better but we were happy just waiting. Another house party, maybe two; I don’t remember, but we end the night walking home as the corner shop is opening, laughing as we leave the shop with tinned tuna and spring onions, nothing better than a tuna sandwich to end the night. We eat then sleep.
The magic of carnival waits until next year.
