Similarly, Dutty (dirty) or Fun Mas sees participants dancing in brightly coloured paints and powders in a display of mayhem, revelry and pure bacchanal.
Pretty Mas' is imbued with a masquerade style named Bikini & Beads, which is mostly practiced by women and young participants. It is the most commercial form of masquerade in the country and is the model for diaspora carnivals around the world.
Mas Bands create and provide the costumes for NHC. Each registered band has a new theme annually, and the general public are welcome to purchase a costume and join a band to 'play mas' on the parade route at Carnival.
This huge street festival attracts around one million people every year to Notting Hill and highlights Caribbean and Black diasporic cultures. Carnival uses influences from many other festivals around the world.
The history of Notting Hill Carnival represents the resilience and cultural diversity of the communities of London. Despite the political pressures Notting Hill carnival has grown and thrived and represents a space for challenge and community cohesion.
Triniboi Joocie x Scrufizzer | Dutty Mas [Music Video]: SBTV
What do residents think of Notting Hill Carnival?
Local residents complain of anti-social behaviour, such as people urinating in their gardens. The great majority feel forced to leave their homes during the Carnival, and many board up their windows. The same is also true of local businesses, many of which are forced to close for the duration.
What's carnival all about? Carnival is a festival that happens over a few days, usually just before Lent, in February or March. Because traditionally many people go on a fast during Lent, giving up meat, sugar or other foods and drink, carnival is an opportunity to enjoy these treats for the last time.
Carnival can thus be regarded as a rite of passage from darkness to light, from winter to summer: a fertility celebration, the first spring festival of the new year. Several Germanic tribes celebrated the returning of the daylight. Winter would be driven out, to make sure that fertility could return in spring.
Notting Hill Carnival is a free event and does not generate revenue from ticket sales, it is funded by the GLA, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Council it also attracts some sponsorship.
“It's the one time you can be a bit naked — go as far with that as your heart will let you. Wear things that are sheer, with strings, and are short!” She has a few rules: “Do not be an idiot — do not wear high heels to Carnival. Always trainers. You want to be able to run around.
It starts in the wee hours of the morning and goes til 8 or 9am. People meet in a large band and dance through the streets to loud sweet music covering each other from head to toe in mud, or cocoa or even paint. This piece represents the sweet chaos of Trinidad & Tobago's dirty mas.
SUEZ has been handling the clean-up for the carnival on behalf of Kensington and Chelsea Council since 1997, and preparations start as early as Spring.
The Midnight Robber is part highwayman, part cowboy and part agent of death and destruction. He wears a huge fringed hat, a cape adorned with skulls and carries a gun – yet his speech is his most fearsome weapon.
Dame Lorraine or Dame Lorine (Trinidad and Tobago) Trinidad , is a historical Trinidadian Carnival Character. She is characterized as a voluptuously large woman who wears a long dress and dances in the mas.
The Fancy Sailor was an off-shoot of the King Sailor. The fancy sailor costume consists of papier-mâché headpieces, decorated and painted to look like birds, animals or plants. The sailor outfit is decorated with ribbons, medals, braiding, swans down and other embellishments to match the headpieces.
Carnival is linked to the Christian calendar and it was originally conceived as a period of revelry and frolics before Lent, a period of austerity and abstinence. The expansion of Christianity took the festival to many places in America, where it was mixed in with various local traditions.
The Calypso songs they sang doubled as a way to mock the enslavers and to pass messages between enslaved people. Over time, Carnival evolved into the liberating and inclusive festival it is today, and a rich part of Trinidad and Tobago's shared cultural identity.
Trinidad, the birthplace of Carnival in the Caribbean, is still the biggest and wildest party, but there are many other islands where you can experience Carnival almost year-round. Carnival in the Caribbean has a complicated origin. It's tied to colonialism, religious conversion, and ultimately freedom and celebration.
3- The carnival in Brazil is always held 40 days before Easter. 4- There are more than 2 million people on the streets every day during the carnival in Rio. 5- Although that Carnival is Brazil's most important festival the biggest celebrations are held in Sao Paulo, Salvador, Recife, Olinda and Manaus.
Not to be confused with Mardi Gras, Carnival refers to the bevy of events that lead up to Mardi Gras. "Carnival is a time to eat, drink and be merry before the rigorous fasting and sacrifice during Lent," according to Mardi Gras New Orleans. "It is filled with parades, balls and other celebrations."
The level of violence at Notting Hill Carnival is “unacceptable and unsustainable” the Metropolitan Police Federation has said, as images emerged of men brandishing machetes on the streets of west London.
Absolutely appalling place to be during carnival. The streets were piled high with rubbish and people were downing alcohol on the street, urinating in public. No way would you bring families into this spectacle.
