The Notting Hill Carnival takes place in London, on the last weekend in August; Carnival 2006 will be the 42nd. Rhaune Laslett, a well respected social worker in Notting Hill of the 60s, applied to hold a street carnival in Notting Hill. The area was largely populated by immigrants from Ukraine, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the Caribbean and Africa. It suffered from high unemployment and poor housing conditions. There was an air of unrest in Notting Hill with the locals not trusting the immigrants, resulting from a background of racial tensions and several reports of racist attacks on the West Indian community in particular. The carnival was designed to unite these people from different ethnic backgrounds in a week-long event that would culminate in an August bank holiday parade. The first carnival, in 1965, was attended by less than 1,000 people, but was a great success. For the first time Black people could express themselves freely on the streets of Notting Hill in appreciation of the music and togetherness and reminiscing of the Carnivals back home.
Over the next few years, as the West Indian population in the area grew, the carnival became particularly associated with the Trinidad sounds of calypso music, which is now a central part of every carnival. The crowds grew by their tens of thousands each year. The tensions between the police and the West Indian community continued to simmer, eventually erupting in the Notting Hill carnival riots in 1976. Most of the 200,000 people at the carnival that year weren’t even aware of the resentment felt by the black community against the heavy-handedness of the police. Nevertheless, even riots couldn’t dampen the carnival spirits for long. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the carnival established itself as Europe’s largest street festival, routinely drawing crowds of more than a million people. In 2002 the carnival was given a royal seal of approval; to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the colourful procession of dancers and musicians moved down the Mall (the road which runs from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace) before rejoining their regular route.
The Notting Hill Carnival as we know it today was born in the 60s and has since evolved into an event that predominantly reflects the best of Black Music.
(adapted from: www.insideout.net) 
