The Sunday of the Notting Hill Carnival is treated as Children’s Day and is supposed to be the more chilled of the two days of Carnival. As someone who has attended Carnival a couple of times as one of the helpers for one of the Steel Bands there back in the 90’s this is something I can attest to. However, the term ‘chilled’ here is relative and does not mean that Carnival Sunday is crime and violence free, it just means that it’s often less violent and less crime riddled than Carnival Monday.

By 21:30 on Sunday night, the end of the first full day of Carnival, there had been a number of arrests made by the Metropolitan Police related to crimes committed at the Carnival. These offences included ten arrests for assaulting a police officer, twenty six for possession of weapons, eleven sexual assaults, one grievous bodily harm and four for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Here’s the Met’s public statement on the arrests at the more peaceful day of the Notting Hill Carnival.

I noted how the Met mentioned how they liaised with ‘community leaders’ following the crime spree and used extra police powers to control the violence that inevitably breaks out at Carnival and has done so this year. I also note how the Met have treated the organisers of the Notting Hill Carnival extremely leniently when compared to how they’ve treated anti-lockdown demonstrators during the Covid years or how the Met manages other protests such as those that challenge the narrative of the liberal/left. The organisers of the Notting Hill Carnival seem to be treated with kid gloves by the police, as they often are and this is doing nothing to reduce the violence and crime that has come to be associated with Carnival.

Maybe it’s time for the Notting Hill Carnival to change and move from the streets of Notting Hill as it has become too big to be a street event and move it to for example Hyde Park where it might be more easier to police? Moving Carnival to somewhere like Hyde Park would also protect the residents of Notting Hill who from what I’ve heard live in dread of Carnival time because of the violence, vandalism and disruption that Carnival causes. There might even be a case for Carnival to become more like other festivals and become an all ticket event. This is because although the Carnival organisers might be operating in good faith at present they cannot stop nutcases and criminals turning up at Carnival and making life a misery for Notting Hill’s year round residents, robbing members of the public or committing acts of violence. Sadly the Notting Hill Carnival is no longer associated in the minds of the public with fabulous costumes, dancing and thumping bass but stabbings and sexual assaults. Therefore it’s quite possible that the only way to save Carnival as a good day out is to move it to a location where the Met can police it properly.