Notting Hill Carnival: What to know before you go to London Caribbean celebration - police presence explained

The Notting Hill Carnival takes place every August Bank Holiday weekend, and will see performers parade through the streets. A fixture in London’s cultural calendar, the three-day event celebrates Caribbean culture through costume, dance and music.

Billed by organisers as “the greatest community-led event on the planet”, it attracts one to two million people each year. It is the biggest of its kind in Europe, and has ben held in London since the 1960s.

Saturday this year saw performers compete in Notting Hill Carnival’s Panorama evening, the UK’s biggest steelband competition. Five bands played a ten-minute composition from memory with no sheet music allowed.

But thousands of officers are also preparing to police the rest of the event, which has unfortunately been marred by violence, sexual assaults, and attacks on police officers in years past, the Independent reports.

Here’s what people who want to attend this year’s even need to know:

What does the rest of the weekend have in store - and what should people know before they go?

Sunday is Children’s Day at the Carnival - sometimes known as Family Day. It features family-friendly activities and its own parade, where youngsters in colourful costumes are encouraged to dance in the streets.

The main event, the Adults’ Parade, will be held on Monday, and is described by organisers as the climax of the carnival with “party vibes”.

Transport for London has urged people travelling to the carnival to plan their journeys in advance, as some stations could be much busier than usual. Paddington and Shepherd’s Bush are some of the closest stations, and will be open all weekend long.

However, other nearby stations including Ladbroke Grove, Westbourne Park, Notting Hill Gate, and Holland Park will have full or partial closures in place during the event. Local buses also do not operate during Carnival, while e-bike hire companies like Santander switch them off for the event.

On Monday, there will be live music spread across two stages from midday through to 7pm. The ever-popular parade kicks off a little earlier at 10am, with attendees advised to get there early to secure a good spot - and to bring their costumes and whistles. You can find the parade route here.

The whole event is expected to wind down around 8pm this year.

Why are there so many police at the Notting Hill Carnival?

Generally, the Carnival is a fun and safe community event, although there are usually a number of incidents and arrests - especially around the time of the adult’s parade. There were eight stabbings and 275 arrests in 2023. But this year, there will be a large-scale policing operation, with around 7,000 officers on duty throughout the weekend.

Met Police spokesperson Commander Charmain Brenyah told PA she had grown up near where the event is held in west London and had “many happy memories of the music, costumes, floats and fantastic atmosphere”. But she added: “Sadly, however, we know that for a minority of people, Carnival is an opportunity to commit crime or to seek out violent confrontation.”

The force will be deploying a specialist crowd management cell for the second year in a row, to monitor crowd density and flow. Its officers will be joined by colleagues from the City of London Police and the British Transport Police.

Rick Prior, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said many “hard-working” officers would be “missing valuable time to rest and be at home with loved ones” to police the event.

“We wish our hard-working colleagues a safe and secure policing operation at the Notting Hill Carnival,” he said. “Many are missing valuable time to rest and be at home with loved ones to work across the bank holiday weekend at this demanding event.”