And if the Olympics were not enough cultural diversity for London this year, the end of August was marked by another amazing event ‘The Notting Hill Carnival’, a grand celebration of cultural diversity and unity in the United Kingdom.

The Notting Hill Carnival, Europe’s biggest street festival is an annual grand event that has been held every year since 1965 on the streets of Notting Hill, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, United Kingdom, in the month of August, over two days (the August bank holiday Monday and the day beforehand).

It is led by members of the West Indian community, particularly the Trinidadian and Tobagonian British population or "Trinis", many of whom have lived in the area since the 1950s. The carnival has attracted around one million people in the past years, making it one of the largest street festivals in the world.

Every year the streets of West London come alive, with the sounds and smells of Europe’s biggest street festival. Twenty miles of vibrant colourful costumes surround over 40 static sound systems, hundreds of Caribbean food stalls, over 40,000 volunteers and over 1million Notting Hill carnival revellers.

The Carnival began in January 1959 in St Pancras Town Hall as a response to the depressing state of race relations at the time.

This carnival organised by the legendary Trinidadian Claudia Jones, who is widely recognised as "the Mother of the Notting Hill Carnival", was a huge success, despite being held indoors.

The other important strand was the "hippie" London Free School-inspired festival that became the first organised outside event in August 1966. The prime mover was Rhaune Laslett, who was not aware of the indoor events when she first raised the idea. This was a more diverse Notting Hill event to promote cultural unity. A street party for neighbourhood children turned into a carnival procession when Russell Henderson's steel band went on a walkabout. Since 1966, the first day of the London Notting Hill Carnival is known as the ‘Children Carnival Day’. The second day is the ‘Adult Carnival Day’.

By 1976, the event had become definitely Caribbean in flavour, with around 150,000 people attending.
As the carnival had no permanent staff and head office, the Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill, run by another Trinidadian, Frank Crichlow, came to function as an informal communication hub and office address for the carnival's organisers.

Prince Charles was one of the few establishment figures who supported the event.

In the photos:

Colorful costumes at the Notting Hill Carnival. London. UK © 2012 Nora de Angelli/ www.noraphotos.com

Sources: Personal notes & Wikipedia.