Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

Evaluating the Carnival Public Safety Project
2.91 The Notting Hill Carnival is an important and highly enjoyable event. At the same time, it
presents a web of complex and diverse challenges to the stakeholders. The Carnival Public
Safety Project looked at one key element in this web; its aim was to provide crowd safety
inputs to assist the stakeholders in their selection of a carnival route for future carnivals. It
was not, and was never intended to be, a ‘full solution’ to all the problems associated with the
Carnival. There are many other issues that still need to be addressed. Through the study,
however, several other courses of action were identified as part of an overall process to tackle
safety problems and ensure successful future carnivals:
Review of the Entertainment Area
2.92 The analysis of Carnival 2001 and 2002 led to a number of findings about the crowding inside
the entertainment area and its potential effects on the event as a whole, particularly the
importance of the static sound systems as attractors. Some recommendations were made
about static sound systems in the Carnival Design Guidance and we specified that any changes
to the location of sound systems in the alternative routes proposed by stakeholders would be
evaluated. None of the routes submitted for evaluation by the stakeholders contained any
proposals for changes to the design of the entertainment area. There were sound reasons for
this decision by the stakeholders, as it was noted that trying to change too much at once will
bring its own problems and that Carnival should be modified in an ‘evolutionary way’,
beginning with the route change. It is also much clearer to assess the advantages of routes
against each other under the same assumptions about the location of other attractions.
Planning and Implementation Considerations
2.93 The design of the route and the entertainment area provide the basis on which detailed
planning and implementation of Carnival can progress. However, it is important to note that
in addition to the route and the entertainment area, other issues of detailed planning and
implementation would also have impacts on safety. They may include how the Carnival is to
be event managed; float management, crowd management, the transit of carnivalists, public
transport and information provision and public education. Many of these are operational or
logistical issues concerning the implementation of changes. Also, given the complex nature of
the carnival and the large number of stakeholders involved, inevitably there arise conflicting
interests and requirements between stakeholders. Therefore, the Carnival Review Group was
acutely aware of the fact that the search for an optimum solution was likely to involve plenty
of compromises (probably in all areas) with new proposals and counter proposals, all of which
could have safety implications. These safety implications would need to be addressed and the
subsequent changes in risks reflected in any risk assessment. The complex nature of the
carnival also means that stakeholders may have practical difficulties in implementing some of
the risk reduction measures suggested in the risk assessment and alternatives may have to be
found.
Completing the Picture: Gaps in Data
2.94 The gathering of data on crowding at the Carnival undertaken by the project identified some
gaps in information that could be very useful for strategic planning. In particular, more basic
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