If you are in London during the latter half of August then you absolutely HAVE TO go and play amongst the masses at the spectacular annual summer festival, the Notting Hill Carnival. Every year over the bank holiday long weekend the stylish and very wealthy district of Notting Hill hosts a 2 day long street festival in celebration of the West Indian / Caribbean community who have been in the area since the 1950´s - and since the 60´s the streets of Notting Hill have become a playground of colourful costumes, music, dancing, drinking, eating, culture and a whole of fun.
As Europe's largest street festival, Notting Hill Carnival attracts an average of 1 million people every year - only rivalled by the world famous Carnival in Rio. The weekend traditionally kicks off on the Saturday with ´Panorama´, a steel-band competition, followed by ´kids´ day´ on the Sunday with a shorter parade, and the main event is Monday when the masses converge and the party almost gets out of control! The famous procession begins around 10am and it really is fantastic with some of the most amazing costumes you'll ever see, riding on or jiggling behind each float until the parade finishes up around 10pm at night. All day outside in the streets there are Mobile DJ´s blasting out fabulous tunes from enormous sound systems, steel-bands entertaining crowds with traditional music, there are also areas for reggae, drum´n´bass and garage music, the food stalls are delicious and people are literally dancing everywhere and anywhere.
Don't fight the crowd; just shuffle, bump and move along with it. You can grab a map of the festival to find who is playing what and where, or you can just wing it and have a day full of surprises. If you are planning to meet friends there, do it early in the day, have a good meeting spot or forget about it - you'll either bump into them by chance or chat about it the next day. Once the carnival has finished up in the streets, the many bars in the area keep the party spirit alive until late.
If you don't like crowds you should probably avoid this event or find a spot you like and stay there for the day, people watching from the sidelines (which is enough fun in itself). Only take with you what is necessary as pick-pockets have a field day at these sorts of events. Don't bother driving to this event; take the tube to Notting Hill Gate (Central, District & Circle lines) or Ladbroke Grove (Hammersmith & City line). There are also several bus routes that service the area. Allow yourself plenty of time to get to the carnival and for leaving when you've finally had enough as there will clearly be a lot of people doing the same.
Notting Hill is located in West London and is also home to the fabulous Portobello Road Market where shopping is possible 7 days a week. You will find some very unique items of clothing, great bargains, bric-á-brac, and exotic foods. However the market is most famous for its Saturday antiques market with over 1,500 stalls and shops selling all sorts of antique goodies. Notting Hill Gate tube station is also only a short walk away from Kensington Gardens, housing Kensington Palace, and Hyde Park.
Notting Hill itself only has a handful of hotels however within a few minutes travel there are literally hundreds of hotels in bayswater, Paddington and Kensington.
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