Notting Hill Carnival 2023 Review
So last weekend I went to London for the first time since BEFORE COVID. It’s always been one of my favorite cities, so I don’t know how it’s been so long since I’ve been there. Especially since it’s only a 50 minute to 1 hour flight from Dublin!
It was so nice to be back in one of my favorite cities. It also happened to be a Bank Holiday in the UK and as per usual, there was soooo much going on in London for the weekend. And it worked out that one of the events happening was something that I had heard of and have always wanted to experience for myself: the Notting Hill Carnival!
Here’s a review of how my day at Notting Hill Carnival 2023 went down.
Before my recent trip to London, I did some research to see if there were any cool (and especially FREE) events happening there over the weekend. I was delighted to find out the Notting Hill Carnival was taking place! It’s a very well-known event, so I had heard about it before. I’d also seen pictures online of the amazing, vibrant costumes worn by performers in the parade.
Growing up in Louisiana, I have attended MANY a Mardi Gras celebration in my day and absolutely LOVE parades. Since moving to Ireland though, I unfortunately haven’t been back to Louisiana for Mardi Gras. I did attend the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin my first year living here, but I actually found it very underwhelming compared to the extravagant parades I’m used to! So I was really eager to check out the Notting Hill Carnival and see what it was all about.
I was expecting a really cool parade, great music, delicious food, and extravagant outfits and costumes. Did I get was I was expecting? Well…………. sort of.
Before I dive into the details of my personal experience at Notting Hill Carnival 2023, here’s a little bit about the festival.
What is Notting Hill Carnival?
Notting Hill Carnival is a Caribbean carnival that’s a celebration of Caribbean culture and diversity. It’s a huge event in British Caribbean culture and has been taking place in Notting Hill since the 60s.
During Carnival, the street of Notting Hill are filled with Caribbean colours, music and flavors. It’s one of the biggest street festivals in the world and attracts over a million people each year over the course of the weekend.
Notting Hill Carnival usually takes place on the last weekend of August, including the UK August Bank Holiday Monday. The 2023 Notting Hill Carnival took place from Saturday, August 26 – Monday, August 28 2023.
Throughout the weekend there are parades featuring elaborate floats and performers in costumes winding their way through the streets. There’s also steel bands and calypso music playing in the parades and around the area. Plus, there’s LOTS of food stalls serving up delicious Caribbean food.
Oh and just to reiterate – Notting Hill Carnival is free on Sunday and Monday! On the Saturday of the Carnival there is a steel band competition, but that is a ticketed event. For the rest of the weekend, all Carnival activities are freeeeeeee, including the main parades and all other live street entertainment! You can find information about this year’s carnival schedule, performers, and other general info here.
What day we went to Notting Hill Carnival 2023
Even though Notting Hill Carnival runs from Saturday to Monday, my friend and I decided to go on Sunday. It was the day that fit in the best with our schedule and other things we wanted to do over the weekend. Sunday is technically the Family and Children’s Day. But, we had heard that other than the Children’s Parade that runs in the morning, the rest of the day would draw a more diverse crowd.
How we got to Notting Hill Carnival 2023
We got to the Carnival via tube from Central London – we travelled Lancaster Gate station via the Central Line. Although there are other tube stations that are much closer to where Carnival takes place, there are certain tube stations that are closed or running one direction only at certain times throughout the weekend for traffic control. So, we thought it would be easier to get out of the tube a little further out and walk in.
The walk there wasn’t long at all, and we also passed a gorgeous stretch of Hyde Park on the way! Bonus: We passed right by public toilets at the edge of Hyde Park which I would highly recommend availing of. Once you get into the Carnival, all that’s available are not so nice porta-pottys with really long lines. But more on that later.
We didn’t really know where exactly the Carnival “was”. We knew it was in Notting Hill obviously, but that’s still a wide enough area. And we didn’t know where the parade route was. So we just put the location of one of the 2 live stages into our phones and figured we’d eventually find more of the crowd and follow them.
What time we got to Notting Hill Carnival 2023
It was 4PM by the time we got to Lancaster Gate. (This was due to us taking a while to get ready and stopping en route in Central London for some pre-Carnival cocktails). We still thought we’d have plenty of time, because on the official Carnival website it said that the stages had live entertainment until 7PM.
Well, when we started walking from the tube in the general direction of Notting Hill, we noticed that there was a lot more people walking AWAY FROM the area than TOWARDS the area. We started thinking – have we missed it all? But it turns out it was mostly families leaving since the children’s parade had ended, and as we followed directions to the main stage, the crowd got thicker and thicker.
My Review of Notting Hill Carnival 2023
The Good
The highlight for me was definitely the food and drinks.
At the Notting Hill Carnival I had a delicious jerk pork with rice and plantains. It was seriously SO GOOD. I also got one several rum punches that are a Carnival staple and BOY were they delicious also. There were sooo many food vendors selling so many different Caribbean foods. I could’ve spent the whole weekend trying so many different things! I’m not super familiar with Caribbean food so it was so fun seeing what was being sold. The vendor’s prices were also reasonable and the vendor’s themselves (that I spoke to, anyway) were all SUPER friendly and looked like they were having a great time!
Another highlight of the day was the music.
Ya’ll – the SOUND SYSTEMS of the parade were insane. You really couldn’t help but dance along to the music blaring from the different floats in the parade. I love, love, loveddddd all the Caribbean music I go to hear that day.
Traffic control was great and I always felt very safe.
Guys when I say there were police EVERYWHERE. As far as security goes, I felt really safe. I also though traffic control was handled really well. Although the sidewalks along the parade route were (obviously) crowded, they had a special roped-off walkway for people who were just trying to walk alongside the parade or get someone else. So, it was really to get from Point A to Point B without getting trapped by parade spectators. Also when we went to leave the Carnival via tube, there were police outside of the station managing the flow of traffic and making sure it didn’t get too crowded, which I really appreciated.
I loved all of the homemade bars and pop up street dance parties
Lumping these 2 together because I guess they both fall under the category of…impromptu? Anyways, one thing I really loved about the Notting Hill Carnival was the pop up bars and dance parties in and around local residences. People who lived in houses along or near the parade route set up bars in their front yards, or had speakers blaring music so that people could dance in the street. So you could buy drinks from “official” vendors, or you could buy drinks from unofficial pop ups at local’s houses!
The Bad The Not So Good
It wouldn’t be an authentic review of Notting Hill Carnival 2023 if I didn’t also review the more negative aspects of the festival.
First up, remember how I said we had decided to go to the Carnival on Sunday instead of Monday?
Well turns out, I think we may have chosen the wrong day
In my head, I was picturing a lot of those amazing feathered costumes that are typical of carnival. But turns out, that big spectacle is on MONDAY. Whoops! Although there were still a few people (mostly kids from the kid’s parade) dressed in the typical feathered carnival costumes and headdresses, most people were dressed normally, and a lot of them seemed to be covered in paint.
I only found out later that Sunday is the “Dutty Mas” day. As part of the parade, participants and onlookers are splashed with brightly-colored paints and powders. So we saw a lot of people covered in dried paint, but not as many beautiful feathered costumes as I would’ve liked. But that’s totally my fault!
And as it also turns out, I think we may have arrived too late.
We very much got the sense that the party had VERY MUCH already started when we arrived. Not only did we only catch the tail-end of the parade, we also missed the paint-throwing. Also, we arrived relatively sober and you can tell people had been (heavily) drinking all day. Good for them! I wish we would’ve gotten there sooner and been drinking with them. So again, that’s totally my fault and my lack of pre-planning!
One thing that wasn’t my fault though, was the insane amount of garbage everywhere.
Now, I don’t know if this is the fault of the festival organizers, the city council, or both. But there was a SERIOUS lack of trash cans. One of the first things I noticed when we arrived was that there was trash EVERYWHERE. Literally everywhere. At first I thought it was just a lack of decency and people being gross. But it quickly became evident that it was actually a lack of places to throw the trash away. And actually, I think people wanted to throw away their trash properly because the trash wasn’t just dumped everywhere (for the most part). Nope, the trash was piled up in various mounds around the place, indicating that people were being conscious of not just dumping their trash anywhere, but there were just zero places TO dump the trash. Hardly trash cans or bins available anywhere!
After we ate our delicious food, I held onto my trash for a while trying to find a bin. After about 20 minutes, I had to give up and just lay it on top of one of those pile of trash on the sidewalk because I had not passed a single bin. So yeah, the sheer amount of trash everywhere, and lack of facilities to throw trash away, was probably one of my most negative takeaways of the day.
It was very crowded and the lines for food and toilets were very long.
I mean listen, this is pretty standard for any festival, especially one that’s free and as popular as Notting Hill Carnival. Even though it didn’t feel too crowded walking down the street or watching the parade, there were always seriously long lines for food and ESPECIALLY for toilets.
Even though (like I said above) the food was really good, we had to wait in line for a long time to get it. There were also people peeing on the street (mostly down side streets) because the lines for toilets were so bad. Not ideal. And although you can always expect big crowds at a free festival, it’s the responsibility of the organizers to ensure there’s enough toilets so that people don’t have to resort to peeing on the street.
Plus, by the time we got to the smaller of the 2 stages by about 5PM, it was so crowded within the gates of the stage that we couldn’t get in.
Lastly, I found the parade underwhelming
Again, I think this was down to us not going on the right day. I assume the Adult Parade on Monday, when all the “Mas Bands” / groups have a different annual theme that everyone dresses up for, is a bigger spectacle. But the Sunday parade just wasn’t what I was expecting. The floats weren’t decorated or anything like that, they were basically just a way to move the (amazing) sound systems around. I guess it just wasn’t what I was used to.
All in all though, would I go again? Absolutely.
I would definitely give Notting Hill Carnival another chance. Even though there were quite a few negative aspects of my day there, I did have a good time overall. Plus, a few of the negatives of my day were down to my lack of knowledge of the event, like what times/days are best to go, what to expect, what to wear, where the parade goes, how to dance to the music etc. And that’s fine. Because this festival isn’t for me. It’s for people of Caribbean descent to celebrate their rich heritage. I was there as a spectator, enjoying the food, music, and joy of the people there. And even if my day could’ve been a little better, they were having a BALL. And that’s all that matters!
TLDR; What should you know before going to Notting Hill Carnival next year?
- If you want to see the “main event” of the Carnival including the fabulous carnival costumes, go to the “Adult Parade” Monday.
- The stages at Notting Hill Carnival had live entertainment from 12-7pm. We arrived at 4pm and very much felt like we had missed a lot of the parade and spectacle. Plus, the stage areas were super packed. So I guess….arrive earlier than we did?
- If travelling to Notting Hill Festival by tube, consider getting out at a tube station a little outside of Notting Hill and walking in. Or else, risk not being able to exit at the tube station you want because it’s closed or only operating in 1 direction.
- Be prepared to QUEUE for food and especially toilets. So maybe use the toilet before you arrive.
- But as for the food? Annoying that the lines for food were so long, but the food I had was delicious and definitely worth it. Step out of your comfort zone and try something Caribbean that you haven’t had before – you won’t regret it!
- Also consider having cash on you. The vendors who only took cash had much MUCH shorter lines than other vendors.
- Also make sure to have some rum punch – it’s sold all over the carnival and it’s delicious!
So there you have it! My (detailed) recap and review of my day at Notting Hill Carnival 2023! Here are some more photos from the day.
