Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

Event Management and Close Down Times
2.35 In their submissions to the Review Group, both the police and the local authorities identified
two critical and interrelated areas, which they argued were particularly important to review so
as to offer a realistic possibility of improving public safety and reducing crime and disorder.
The first such area was the Carnival’s finishing time, with the second being the closely related
issue of the number of vehicles on the processional route.
2.36 There are two finishing or ‘close-down’ times in Carnival. The first takes place at 7pm, when
the live stages and music played by the static sound system are is turned off. In relation to
the Carnival procession, the multi-agency Statement of Intent and Code of Practice provides
that all bands must aim to pass the judging point by 6.30pm on both the Sunday and the
Monday. In theory at least, “all the necessary arrangements before and during the Carnival
acknowledges the necessity for all the street events, such as bands (floats) and street trading,
to be closed down in time to encourage a peaceful, safe and gradual crowd dispersal from the
Carnival area by 9.00pm on each day.” 60 In reality, whilst the 7pm close-down time has always
been achieved, it is the 9pm finish time that has consistently eluded the Carnival organisers.
2.37 In its interim report, the Review Group acknowledged that the number of support vehicles
accompanying the Carnival floats on the route was a key obstacle to achieving a 9pm finish
time. An analysis of vehicle numbers during the 2001 and 2002 Carnivals found that for every
music float on the processional route, masquerade bands were also accompanied by on
average an additional 2 ‘support’ vehicles. These vehicles served as rest areas (particularly in
the case of bands with young children or the elderly) whilst on the route. In total, for Carnival
2001, there were 140 vehicles on the route each day. These were despite the Review Group’s
interim recommendation that the Carnival organisers make every effort to reduce vehicle
numbers. The numbers increased slightly for Carnival 2002, against a backdrop of repeated
and unsuccessful attempts by the police and the local authorities who encouraged the
organisers to work with the masquerade bands to reduce vehicle numbers. Evidence has
shown that the majority of crime committed at the Carnival occurs at nighttime. The
achievement of an effective close-down therefore represented a critical public safety and
event management requirement. For two years under the review, the Carnival organisers had
been unable to limit the number of vehicles in the procession and thereby develop an
effective strategy to achieve a 9pm close-down.
2.38 A key feature of the Carnival in 2003 was the relocation of the judging point to the start of
the route on the Great Western Road and the implementation of a ‘route management plan’
that contained several new strategies: the phased entry of bands onto the route; a judging
zone to promote continuous movement rather than a series of static performances in front of
a judges’ table; and an extensive area of controlled-entry seating placed within the judging
zone on the Great Western Road. Together with the deployment of highly visible and well coordinated
stewards in key locations, the route management plan proved to be successful in
maintaining the flow of the procession for much of the time with all registered bands passing
through the judging zone well before the scheduled time of 9pm. Although no systematic
count of the number of people attending the Carnival was conducted in 2003, the widely
accepted view is that numbers were down on previous years. There is no doubt that this
reduction in visitor numbers made the implementation of the route management plan much
60
Notting Hill Carnival: Statement of Intent and Code of Practice, Clause 7, p4
90