Notting Hill Carnival

Monday was a bank holiday, making the weekend a good old 'langnaweek'. The long weekend was also the time of the famous/notorious annual Notting Hill Carnival. Since the 60's the Caribbean people of London have been taking to the streets of Notting Hill on these two days with parades, floats and costumes to celebrate and display their culture. They are now joined by the rest of the city and the world to create the biggest street party in Europe and the second biggest in the world apart from Rio. We went there on the Sunday, the milder of the two days, but it was still crazy, with masses of people dancing in the streets to Reggae and Calypso music pumping through hugh sound systems, drinking rum from coconuts and eating jerk chicken sold by hundreds of stalls while the police nervously watch on. It's the most people I've ever seen in one place and yet the media reported that only 250 000 showed up on the Sunday, while the main event was attended by around 600 000 trampling each other on the Monday! I hate to hear that I missed out on a great party by going home too soon, but in this case it doesn't bother me that much...

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