Community on the Road: Notting Hill Carnival 2025
Reporting on Notting Hill Carnival is a different type of meaningful for me, because it’s a meeting of two worlds which are close to my heart.
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One is the world of powerful, authentic and vital storytelling.
The other one is that of NHC itself: a space for the celebration of community, Caribbean cultures, love, resistance, and music.
Summing this up powerfully, Nicole Bastien, who played with Paddington Arts Mas Band and wore a Miracle Precious costume, told me: “Carnival means who I am, it’s in my blood, it’s my grandma, it’s great grandma, it’s my great, great grandma, it’s my great grandad, paternal, maternal; it’s my children's future, it’s history, and it’s his story and it’s her story, and it’s my story.
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“So, it means a lot and it’s a representation of who I am and where I’m from.
“And we can’t forget it, we have to keep repeating it. We are the forefathers, we are the new ancestors, so it means a lot to me.”
Nicole’s closing sentence felt very moving. It made me think about how what we do now, is what future generations will look back on as history.
And that is one of the reasons that this celebration of unity and diversity, of this scale, right here in my city, hits as significantly as it does.
That very diversity was highlighted by carnival influencer Tracey Lyons-White, who came over from the US to enjoy Notting Hill Carnival: “One of the things that really encourages me to continue coming back is the diversity of the different cultures that come out and show support and love for the culture, the Caribbean culture.
“For that, Notting Hill continues to be one of the top experiences on my list.”
Everyone who’s spoken with me over the long weekend has shared some of that positivity about this iconic event.
For a ranging list of reasons longer than my arm, Carnival means so much to so many. My heart is always warmed when I hear from families who have attended for generations, and my spirits are high when I inevitably bump into friends whom I haven’t seen in ages.
It reminds me that even though millions of us are living here in London, we’re sometimes closer than we may realise - both physically through very few degrees of separation, and through our backstories and shared experiences.
Notting Hill Carnival beautifully embodies that and so much more.