UK’s Notting Hill Carnival 2022 starts on August 27
For the first time since 2019, the popular Notting Hill Carnival 2022 is set to return back to the streets of London’s Notting Hill neighborhood with music, dancing, parades, and many other festivities. The British summertime festival has attracted millions of attendees each year prior to the pandemic, and now it’s ready to get the party started once again.
Every late August bank holiday weekend, a three-day annual African-Caribbean celebration is held on the streets of Notting Hill. The origins of Notting Hill Carnival can be traced to the traditions of the Caribbean carnivals as well as the social and political climate that resulted from the migration of Caribbean residents after 1948.
Through a mutual passion and admiration of “island life,” the yearly gathering has brought generations of Brits together since the 1960s. This illustrates the profound influence the Caribbean population in the UK has had as well as the broader impact that Black culture has had on western society over the past century.
That Sunday and Monday of the August bank holiday weekend are when the biggest events of Notting Hill Carnival 2022 will take place. The single ticketed portion, the National Panorama Steelband Competition, begins at 4 p.m. BST on Saturday, August 27, signaling the unofficial beginning of the celebrations.
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, claims that the British summertime festival has since become the “part of the very fabric” of London. This year for Notting Hill Carnival 2022, visitors will get to experience everything that has made the carnival so renowned in its 3.5 mile course.
The Channel One Sound System stage will be celebrating their 40th year, while the dance and night club Deviation will be held at the Killerwatt Sound System on Sunday. Organizers have also planned a 72-second silence for those lost in the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
For more information about the festival, along with the downloadable digital map, visit the Notting Hill Carnival website.