Events: Notting Hill Carnival

On Monday a week ago, I went to the famous Notting Hill Carnival. I was very excited since I'm a big fan of the Carnival of Cultures in Berlin:
http://www.karneval-berlin.de/de/english.175.html
Most of my friends didn't wanna go, though - some are afraid of big crowds, some have still the riots on their minds - and  my English friends told me only tourists go there.

But I was intrigued since the Notting Hill Carnival is held each August Bank Holiday since 1966 and is the largest festival celebration of its kind in Europe. Every year the streets of West London come alive, with the sounds and smells of Europe's biggest street festival: http://www.thenottinghillcarnival.com/

So, we arrived around noon and I had the chance to get very close to the parade participants and saw some stunning costumes:

What I really liked in Berlin was, that we actually participated in the parade in the end. There was a truck with electronic music and lots of young people followed it and we all danced and had  an amazing time. In  Notting Hill, I also discovered a guy who actively took part, at least in the musical side of the parade. He was standing on a balcony, had a couple of instruments with him and played whatever fit the best: drums, guitar etc. 

I very much enjoyed most of the parade, but there were also scenes that really annoyed me and I'd describe as "not sophisticated". I think a day like that is a great opportunity to present your culture to a broad audience and you shouldn't miss that chance by performing vulgar scenes.

But all in all, if you would like to get a glimpse of how the Carnival in Rio might be, you like Caribbean food and Latin music, go there next year - preferably early in the day! But don't forget your sanitizers ;-)