The Notting Hill Carnival has been running for almost 40 years and never fails to impress. As my mates and I reached The Harrow Road we could hear the sounds of reggae being blasted out of huge speakers getting louder and louder the closer we got. We progressed further and joined a huge river of people, equipped with horns and whistles, all eager to be part of one of the biggest carnivals in the world. We were on the carnival route following a float that was extravagantly decorated in loads of different colors and surrounded with passionate dancers with amazing costumers dancing to the bouncy Reggae bass lines being blasted out of massive sound systems on board. It was 3:30 and it was clear that The Notting Hill Carnival was definitely in full swing.
We carried on the route until we reached All Saints Road where the floats and the masses of followers turned left and we turned right. Walking down All Saints Road the music from the float we'd just been following had now been replaced by other, equally large and incredibly load sound systems playing all types of West Indian music. In every direction you looked people were dancing, laughing, smiling and having a great time. Nearby residents were dancing on their balconies, some had even set up stalls outside their houses and were selling hotdogs, corn-the-cob and loads n load of chicken along with much needed cans of cold beer. The Atmosphere was infective and you couldn't help but join in.
For the next three and a half hours we explored the packed roads in the centre of the carnival trying to discover all the different aspect it had to offer. We saw tons of people in a variety of costumes and heard many different styles of music from ragga and dub to techno and trance. The best being, in my opinion, the drum n bass stage which had a mixture of live acts, djs and mcs. However, there is always room for improvements and this year I felt the toilet facilities left a lot to be desired.
