Notting Hill Carnival kicked off at the crack of dawn this morning with colourful celebrations for J’Ouvert, marking the start of the world-famous street party.
From 6am, festival-goers gathered in west London for J’Ouvert celebrations, which means opening of the day, as they paraded through the streets and sprayed brightly coloured paints and powders to get into the carnival spirit.
Three men splattered in paint were even spotted dancing on top of a bus stop outside Ladbroke Grove station, near Portobello Road market, as celebrations got off to a very early start.
Hundreds gathered under a bridge where they danced and launched paint into the air as Europe’s biggest street party, which celebrates Caribbean culture, got underway in flamboyant style.
Some were dressed in blue overalls to protect their clothes from the paint, while others wore their most colourful outfits or took part in a tradition from Grenada in the West Indies called Jab-Jab.
This is where they cover their bodies in black oil, tar, mud or paint, wear horns and drag chains in a satirical celebration to recognise the detrimental impact of UK colonialism and the slave trade upon Caribbean nations.
Police say they expect more than a million people to descend on Notting Hill ‘for what is one of the most significant weekends in the capital’s cultural calendar’.
Partygoers will be met with dazzling parades with masquerade dancing, soca, calypso, steel bands and huge sound systems.
J’Ouvert – which was cancelled last year – returned at sunrise this morning but the official opening ceremony starts at 10am on Sunday.
Three men splattered in paint were spotted dancing on top of a bus stop outside Ladbroke Grove station, near Portobello Road market
Hundreds of revellers were out in force as early as 6am on Sunday morning
Notting Hill Carnival kicked off at the crack of dawn this morning with colourful celebrations for J’Ouvert
Revellers sprayed paint into the air as the carnival got off in style ahead of the official opening
Many honoured a tradition from Grenada in the West Indies called Jab-Jab, where they cover their bodies in black oil, tar, mud or paint, wear horns and drag chains. It is a traditional and satirical celebration to recognise the detrimental impact of UK colonialism and the slave trade upon Caribbean nations
People were taking part in J’ouvert at the crack of dawn ahead of the Children’s Day Parade
Sunday is the children’s day parade, with family-friendly activities and events accompanied by street dancing and sound systems throughout the day.
At 3pm on both Sunday and Monday, a 72-second silence will be held to remember the Grenfell Tower fire victims.
Monday is the adult’s parade, which is usually the busiest day where revellers wearing bright costumes and waving flags will pack out west London for a day of extravagance.
During the carnival, police will be deployed in ‘significant numbers’ to deal with any trouble, with around 7,000 officers to be on duty across London this Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.
The Metropolitan Police said on yesterday that it had already arrested 100 people and taken dozens of weapons off the streets as part of an operation to deter those who pose the greatest risk to public safety at this year’s event.
There will also be live facial recognition cameras and screening arches to detect weapons at the busiest entry points.
It comes after two people died days after being attacked in separate incidents during last year’s carnival. Cher Maximen was killed in front of her three-year-old daughter and chef Mussie Imnetu was beaten to death by charity worker Omar Wilson.
There were four stabbings and more than 103 arrests for robbery, violence, sexual offences, drug offences and possession of weapons last year.
Police were kicked, punched, pushed, spat at, headbutted and had glass bottles thrown at them in 2024 when 349 arrests were made – the highest total since 2019.
Residents and business owners have been boarding-up properties along the carnival route in an attempt to reduce the risk of damage.
Commander Charmain Brenyah, the Met Police’s spokesperson for the event, said: ‘The vast majority come to have fun and enjoy themselves, to celebrate Caribbean culture, to dance, to eat and to go home with nothing but good memories.
‘Regrettably we know a minority come with less positive intentions and in recent years this has played out in the form of serious violence including three tragic incidents where lives have been taken.
Sunday is the children’s day parade, with family-friendly activities and events accompanied by street dancing and sound systems throughout the day
At 3pm on both Sunday and Monday, a 72-second silence will be held to remember the Grenfell Tower fire victims
As part of the Jab-Jab tradition, participants march through the streets with chains
Revellers take part in the ‘J’Ouvert’ celebrations at sunrise during Notting Hill Carnival
Partygoers spray each other with paint as the carnival gets underway at 6am
People taking part in J’ouvert ahead of the Children’s Day Parade
Revellers were seen wearing goggles to protect themselves from the paint being splattered everywhere
‘The actions of this minority are totally at odds with the values of those who care passionately about Carnival and we acknowledge those, including the event organisers, who have stood up to condemn violence and serious criminality in the run up to this weekend.’
Simon Hill, Deputy General Secretary of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, told the Daily Mail in an interview this week that the two biggest concerns for officers were being assaulted and crowd crushing.
He said: ‘Officers are concerned about the crowd density. It is physically possible to be six feet away from a colleague and for you to not be seen or to not see them.
‘Officers are very much isolated due to density. In those isolated moments, then really they are at the mercy of the crowd – if you have people in there intent on causing harm to officers.
‘I’m especially concerned about some of our female colleagues who report being sexually assaulted. It’s just not acceptable. They don’t go to work to be sexually assaulted.
‘It must be dreadful for them. Some of our female colleagues are slight in build – they cannot defend themselves against a dense crowd.’
Mr Hill said officers worried about their ‘inability to protect the public’ in the event of a crowd crush, given video evidence from previous festivals shows the crowd ‘moving almost as a wave… of water’.
He continued: ‘It’s physically possible to lift your feet and be carried with the crowd in certain points. It’s a feeling of helplessness, that they are unable to protect and prevent that. There’s also the fear that they’ll actually be caught up in it.’
Mr Hill said officers were ‘very much at a risk of being victims of any crushing, as well as the public’.
Susan Hall, a Conservative member of the London Assembly, said in a bombshell report published earlier this month that the carnival in recent years had only narrowly ‘avoided a mass crush on the scale of the Hillsborough disaster’.
Cher Maximen (left), 32, and Mussie Imnetu (right), 41, were both murdered at last year’s event
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has warned of the risk of a ‘crowd crush’ at the carnival, saying at a meeting last month that he had ‘seen images of some of the crowds at some parts’ of the event and ‘watching them made me frightened’.
The growing popularity of the carnival has led to politicians raising their concerns over potential crushes at the non-ticketed event, with some suggesting a move to Hyde Park.
Mr Hill backed the festival being moved to a park where it could be ticketed, although he said he accepted the ‘geographical importance of the event’ in its current location.
Workers board up the Elgin pub on Ladbroke Grove before the start of Notting Hill Carnival
A street artist spray paints a boarded up property before the bank holiday weekend
Police officers arriving before the start of last year’s event, which is Europe’s largest street party
A Sainsbury’s local supermarket on Ladbroke Grove is boarded up as a security measure
He pointed out that the current road layout in Notting Hill has various trip hazards such as kerbs and drains, but a park would not have as many uneven surfaces.
Mr Hill also suggested a park would have better refreshment and sanitary facilities, adding: ‘The residents come back to their front gardens being used as toilets, and that’s not acceptable.’
He said: ‘I would be surprised if there’s any event in the UK that attracts a similar number of people confined to such a small geographical space.’
The annual celebration has been running since 1966, and arrest totals have been on a rising curve since the start of the millennium. The total over the past 20 years between 2005 and 2024 is now well over the 5,000 mark.
