Is it all over for Notting Hill carnival?

Future of Europe’s largest outdoor festival is in doubt
after organisers quit over shortage of funds and volunteers

 

A chronic lack of funding, disagreements about the level of policing and internal disputes have put the future of the Notting Hill carnival in jeopardy after its two co-directors quit, saying the 46-year-old event has become impossible to manage.

 

Despite attracting more than a million people over the bank holiday, Europe's largest outdoor festival has no primary private sponsor and is largely organised by unpaid volunteers.

 

"It is still seen as just a Caribbean event and just not taken seriously," said Ancil Barclay, one of the co-directors who handed in his notice this week. "Carnival has to grow up. Everyone loves carnival, but when it comes to putting the right structures in place there is a total lack of investment."

 

...."Carnival is not just a free-for-all party," he said. "Its roots lie in celebrating the emancipation of slavery and it has high artistic values, but it is a struggle to uphold those values when it is so underfunded." Without full-time staff with experience of lobbying, the carnival would not get the recognition it deserved, he added.

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  • I remember my parents taking me to Notting Hill Carnival as a child, I would always look for the steel bands because the sound fascinated me. Those memories are etched into my mind and will not be forgotten, but what memories will there be for the younger generation if events like this fall? I remember there was a time when reggae dancehall was a big thing in England, but no more...it just seems like bit-by-bit culture is being stripped out of England...maybe it's a sign of the times we're living in?
  • I hope not. It is amazing that 'parasites' from far and wide either nip on or take big bites of a product called Carnival.I wonder if the Stakeholders understand their role and responsibility towards their constituents. A few brave entrepreneurs have paved the way for economic development and tourism.The benefits are overwhelming.The Beneficiaries must be alerted to put pressure on the Stakeholders to inject financial support to ensure that Notting Hill Carnival survives.Where is the vision? Kudos to these few pioneers(brave entrepreneurs) who have weathered the storm to this magnitude.

    If it is not done, Nottinghill Carnival needs to be repackaged and sold to both the Public and Private Sectors showing the economic and social benefits that have accrued over the last forty six (46) years of its existence.Detailing your present status and needs for 2012. And a strategic plan for a way forward. The stakeholders would have the opportunity of a second look of the intent of loss, if Notting Hill Carnival shuts down.

    I share my thoughts in ignorance that my conditional statement above maybe true. If it isn't, then, is there a need for change in Human Capital after forty six (46) years of stereo-type static management? Sometimes managing operations, year in year out, in a particular way seems the here its all and where its all. This gives a degree of comfort and drives one into frustration at the end of the task.Particularly, if the end results are negative. Is this the reason that a Co-Director may have submitted his resignation? Or is there disagreements at the top?

    I am in no way pretending to be an expert but merely a devil's advocate speculating at probabilities.It irks me to imagine that after forty six (46) years of hard work that Notting Hill Carnival is falling like a physical London Bridge.My submissions are well intended and in no way, to dismiss the credibility of the present human resource who have laboured seemingly effortlessly to keep Notting Hill Carnival afloat.

     

    Respectfully,

     

    Vernon Peter Morancie 

     

     

     

  • I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be hearing something like this (after 46 years)  I and Leslie Palmer were in on the early discussions of organizing a Kanaval in Ladbroke Grove back in 64 65 at All Saints Church basement and the enthusiasm and excitement at that time could have carried us for 100 years.  nPlease FIND A SOLUTION.  paddy corea
  • When you make your demands, what mechanism do you have for  having them met?. Are you just going to shame them into giving you the money?.Are you going to take them to court? Please give me ahint.
  • REPARATION, that's the word! The English owe us that. So too are the French, Spaniards and Americans, they all owe us. As the Mighty Chalkdust rightly put it in his Calypso way back. Where is our Grandfather backpay? There are so many ways to compensate us and an appropriate and just cause is TOTAL CONTRIBUTION to Carnivals which includes all the Panoramas worldwide.

     

    That demand should be made and pursued through Parliaments and Congress throughout the globe. We just want our Grandfather Backpay. We are not begging. We would look for Sponsors to enhance the prizes etc but the assurance must come from the Governments..............just my thoughts. We have to demand it.

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