Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

The Challenge: Executive Summary
This report represents the conclusion of a three and a half year investigation into the management,
organisation and funding of the Notting Hill Carnival. Central to this strategic review has been the
need to gain a detailed understanding and picture of an event that has grown phenomenally during its
forty-year history.
The Notting Hill Carnival is a unique event, but the challenges that it must overcome in order to ensure
that it remains a vibrant, enjoyable and most importantly, sustainable event are not new. This review
has found that the Carnival is riddled with contradictions and competing perspectives, all of which
have, over the years, served to weaken the ability of the grassroots carnival arts movement in London
to enjoy the tangible benefits of an event that they are responsible for creating. On the one hand, the
Notting Hill Carnival commands the status of a ‘World Carnival’ - it is the largest carnival in Europe and
second in the world only to the Rio Carnival in Brazil. And yet, the infrastructure and resources
supporting this significant cultural festival are wholly inconsistent with this ‘World Carnival’ ranking.
The economic impact study, commissioned by the London Development Agency on behalf of the
Mayor’s Carnival Review Group found that in 2002, the Notting Hill Carnival generated approximately
£93 million and supported the equivalent of 3,000 full-time jobs – clear evidence that what takes place
every August Bank Holiday weekend on the streets of Notting Hill is a multi-million pound income
generating event. And yet, the way in which the Carnival is currently perceived has been shaped more
by crime figures than its positive social and economic contribution to London’s economy and cultural
dynamism. If properly supported and resourced, the Carnival has the potential to contribute
significantly more. The history of the Notting Hill Carnival and the reason for its existence are firmly
rooted in the ideals of freedom, unity and community empowerment. And yet so much of the
language and debate about the Carnival has been centred on how the event should be ‘contained’.
Until the establishment of a new community-based Carnival organising body in 2003 8 , the majority of
the carnival arts community were neither democratically represented within the Carnival management
structure, nor legally entitled to influence it.
This final report of the Mayor’s Carnival Review Group sets out a broad strategic framework for the
sustainable development of the Notting Hill Carnival and the carnival arts industry in London. The
recommendations are made with a view to achieving long-term positive and systemic change to the
way in which the Carnival is organised, managed and funded.
Focusing on the central themes surrounding the Carnival, the report is divided into the following five
sections:
Part I: Introduction
A true appreciation of the significance, meaning and complexities of the Notting Hill Carnival can never
be attained unless one first acknowledges the multi-dimensional nature of an event that has been
shaped by its historical, political, cultural and community origins. This section:
• introduces the Mayor of London’s strategic review of the Notting Hill Carnival (‘the Carnival’)
and the context in which the review was established;
• provides an overview of the Carnival Review Group process, its methodology and key stages;
8
The new organising body, the London Notting Hill Carnival Ltd was established in May 2003.
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