Notting Hill Carnival has come and gone for another year. Actually, it happened a while back, on the long weekend at the end of August. Last year we went away for most of the long weekend, returning on the Monday afternoon to catch the tail end of the carnival. This year we decided to stay for the whole thing.

On the Sunday, the carnival celebrates children's day when only kids under the age of 16 are allowed to participate in the parade. The kids were very cute in their costumes.


Everything else about the Sunday is the same as Carnival Monday though. Hordes of people still turn up to watch and there is lots of drinking happening on the streets. Personally I think that if the organisers were keen to actually make children's day for the children then they should make the day alcohol free. I guess the logistics of this might be impossible though.

Carnival's main event takes place on Monday. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Notting Hill to drink, party and watch the parade. 2009 was no exception. Our suburb was packed with people.

On Monday morning, Andrew, Natalie, Gemma, Dino and I went to the beginning of the parade route to watch some of the parade. The judging for the best float happens here at the beginning of the route. We figured that this was the best place to check out the floats when they were at their best.

I liked the Samba school floats most of all. They were very colourful and very elaborate. There were lots of feathers and sequins.


Or sometimes, there wasn't much at all. Two girls from the Paraiso School of Samba had nothing on except body paint and a bejewelled modesty patch. I think that they were very brave considering how rowdy the carnival crowds can get. When we saw the float pass our house later that day, the girls were riding on one of the floats and they had a ring of protectors around them.

This year, there wasn't the violent end to carnival that there had been last year. Last year there was a riot out the front of our house (I blogged about it and we have some closeup photos of the action). Although, this year Andrew and I saw gangs of hoodies pocketing glass bottles (I guess to be used as missiles later on) the police seemed to keep it under control. They were able to prevent a mass riot from happening.

Even though we've lived here for 3 years this is the first year that we've managed to do Carnival. I don't think we need to do it again. It was lots of fun, but for us there was no escape. Everyone else gets to go home when they've had enough of the crowds and the loud music. We live on the parade route so we get the FULL carnival experience from start to finish. I think once was enough for us. We might take advantage of the long weekend and go away for the next carnival.

Tips for Carnival:

• Do you like crowds? If you don't, then carnival is not for you. The place is packed and sometimes you are completely surrounded by people and have no escape route. If you still want to experience carnival without the crazy crowds, come earlier in the day. It's not too bad at around lunch time on the Monday. Children's Day on the Sunday is also a little less crowded.
  
  
• After a hard day of drinking, the crowds start to get very rowdy. Carnival starts to feel unsafe as the evening approaches so I'd aim to leave before sun down. If there is going to be violence, you really don't want to be caught up in the police action or hit by a flying bottle.
  
  
• The crowds at Carnival are a perfect haven for thieves so you have to be very careful with your belongings. A couple of years ago, Gemma had her purse cleaned out by opportunistic pickpockets. I always find that my Hedgren bag is perfect for these sorts of situations. It has an across the body strap and it sits on my hip. If I'm walking through a crowded area I often place my hand on the bag as further protection.
  
  You might also want to consider tucking a 20 pound note into your bra or undies for just-in-casings. Disastrously, when Gemma had her money and phone stolen, she then lost her friends in the crowd. Poor Gemma had no way of getting home so she had to walk.
  
  
• If you're interested in taking photos of the day, the best place to be is at the very beginning of the parade route before the judging happens. This is actually the marshalling area for the floats so technically you aren't allowed to hang around in this area to watch. But, we found that if you have a Digital SLR (read: impressive looking camera) the security guards just assumed that you were media and didn't shoo you away. Of course, neither Gemma or I had a DSLR on the day so we pretended to be photographer's assistants. We made sure that our photographers were properly hydrated and important stuff like that.

Hrm, my tips don't make it sound like very much fun, do they? It is fun! Maybe just not my cup of tea.

More photos from the Children's Carnival and Carnival Monday on Flickr.