Notting Hill Carnival returns to London after a 2-year Covid hiatus

The annual Notting Hill Carnival has returned to the streets of London for the first time since 2019, with more than 1 million people expected to take in the music, spectacular parades, dancing and food offerings at Europe's largest street party on Sunday and Monday.

The carnival, which celebrates Caribbean culture at the end of August every year, had to take place online for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The carnival traces its history back to 1958, when Trinidadian human rights activist Claudia Jones began organising a gathering to unify the community after a series of racially motivated attacks on West Indians in west London's Notting Hill neighbourhood.

Actor Colin Salmon plays with the UFO Steelband and said that missing the Notting Hill Carnival was like "missing Christmas."

"For our family and our band it's literally one of the best nights, days of the year, weekends of the year, so it's good to be back and doing it really," he added.

The event has grown from a festival drawing several hundred people to a huge annual street party, with tens of thousands of performers in the parade and more than 30 sound systems.

Celebrations began on Saturday night, as more than 1,000 people gathered to watch a steel band competition in west London.\

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