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The Notting Hill carnival

27 août 2006
01m 54s
Ref. 00356

Information

Summary :

Report on the famous Notting Hill carnival, in London. This colourful and festive cultural event, with its Caribbean rhythm, attracts many tourists every summer.

Media type :
Vidéo
Broadcast date :
27 août 2006
Source :
A2 (Collection: 20 heures le journal )
Personnalité(s) :
Thierry Beaurain / Chris Mullard / Rod Charles / Karine Comazzi / Béatrice Schönberg
Themes :
Places :

Context

Millions of tourists gather every year, the last weekend in August, for the very popular Notting Hill Carnival to join the crowd that celebrates Caribbean culture in the British capital.

Getting its name from the west London quarter where there is a large population of resident immigrants from Cuba, Trinidad..., the carnival was created in 1965 by a social worker, Rhaune Laslett. Worried by the tensions between the different ethnic groups, she came up with the idea of a festive gathering that will allow the different communities to reunite and ease relationships, to the sound of percussions and rhythms from soca, calypso, reggae, ragga and other musical genres played out through powerful sound systems. Child parades, dance competitions, culinary specialities and traditional costumes complete the picture of the festival which has not however, managed to make people forget the social inequalities and acts of racism which often strike the city and shake the certainties (as elsewhere) of the immigrant integration model.

In their absence, the Notting Hill Carnival remains one of the biggest touristic and festive gatherings of Europe.

Claire Sécail

Transcription

Béatrice Schönberg
After Rio, the biggest carnival in the world, it's in England, in the pretty neighborhood of Notting Hill, which was made famous by cinema. A colourful carnival that represents the richness of the various cultures. Karine Comazzi, Roy Connelly.
(Music)
Karine Comazzi
Trinidad, Jamaica, Dominican Republic. Before being a stylish London neighborhood, Notting Hill welcomed Caribbean immigrants at the end of the 1950s. Gladys was in that first wave of immigrants.
Gladys
I don't remember my first carnival anymore. It was 20 years ago, maybe more. I was young, I could dance. Now, I can't anymore.
Karine Comazzi
Today, Notting Hill's carnival attracts 2 million visitors, 50,000 participants and 10,000 police officers. But the West Indian good mood persists and even influences the authorities.
Rod Charles
It's an event where there are people from different social standings and it creates a relationship between the communities.
Karine Comazzi
Wanting and doing things together. The theme for the 2006 edition wasn't chosen randomly. The organisers wanted to pay tribute to the capital of cultural brewing.
Chris Mullard
London is in the midst of a complete change. It's very multicultural. In 10 years, most of London's population won't be white.
Karine Comazzi
The biggest crowd of carnival visitors: the French, the most numerous, the most convinced.
Thierry Beaurain
The first thing I liked was this ethnic mix of all the races and colours of this city. And the fact that everything is harmonious.
Unknown
You have to come all the way over here to party.
(Music)
Karine Comazzi
This 42nd edition of the Notting Hill carnival already promises to be a success, an encouraging sign, at a time when England is interrogating itself on its multicultural model.