Notting Hill Carnival London The day had finally come, myself and a couple of mates from East London had been looking forward to this for quite a while now. One friend had bought a full bottle of JD and frozen a bottle of Coke - he even got a fisherman's foldaway stool for later when he got tired and had been to Carnival on the Sunday too - that is dedication. We left the house in bright sunshine and were willing a good day, although we had heard that it was already raining in West London. As our train headed West the sky turned ominously black and eventually we passed through a really heavy rain/hail storm, but luckily when we rolled up to Kensal Rise about 2:45 it was just spitting and all was set for a fine afternoon. We soon heard the rumble of the sounds as we headed on down the hill to 'Yum Yum's' to hook up. There we stayed for a good while as we acclimatised, and caught up with friends, drank, ate, smoked and checked out some of the floats and girls. However the floats aren't my main concern, partly because the crowds make it difficult to appreciate them properly, and that is a shame considering the time and effort that goes into the tremendous costumes. There were a few which caught my attention, such as one which was pumping out Drum 'n Bass, but also had a steel band accompanying. Successfully mixing old and new. At this time of day though the Carnival route is more like a traffic jam rather than a procession and it can be hard to get a good look at all the dancers whilst moving about. The whole area was heaving and everybody was out to simply party and enjoy themselves. I tried to send a few text messages and make some calls, but all the networks were jammed, everyone else must have had that same idea about trying to link. Shortly we moved on to check some of the sound systems and found ourselves at a Salsa sound for a while peeping the trumpets and the Brazilian and Portuguese girls. After a bit of that we moved on into the depths of the crowds and just followed the flow from sound to sound for a bit. There wasn't much choice because of the sheer amount of people. All you could see down every street was an endless sea of people flanked by sounds, food stalls and people trying to flog overpriced beer. Don't know why, but it seemed like we were usually trying to go in the opposite direction to everyone else. Amazingly we bumped into one of the people we had meant to meet up with earlier - and that is a miracle. Turned out he had been following us for a while but couldn't catch up. Time was moving on so we made a move for the Radio 1 stage and one of the reasons why we had come. Anyone who went to Carnival just for the De La Soul show would have been severely disappointed though. Don't let Westwood or anyone else tell you different, because I know how good it could have been. Admittedly Radio 1 had the biggest sound and the largest arena for the audience, but they don't have the correct mentality to run a sound, they want it too cosy and orderly. I suppose they were trying to cater more for middle class families with kids who wanted to spread out on the park and have a picnic, but that area was meant to be about 2000 people drinking and smoking going wild. As it turned out people went a bit too wild. The question has been asked whether Radio 1, Kiss and other larger commercially orientated organisations actually belong at street festivals like Carnival? I believe so, because they can bring some of the bigger acts people want to see. And although they get the prime spots they do not detract from anyone else. However without De La Soul this year the 1FM stage would have been irrelevant to me. If I had gone on the Sunday I would have liked to have seen Common. Is has also been asked of me if 1FM is too big for Carnival? And to that I would reply that Carnival is way bigger than the 1FM stage and it would not impact Carnival adversely if it were not there. I would also say that the crowds are bigger for some of the more popular sounds than 1FM because the concept of the 1FM stage could be found at any generic outdoors festival, whereas some of the other attractions are more unique to Carnival. Anyway as we approached around 5 ish they were playing some ragga and the Bass was incredible. With each set of low frequency waves that permeated my body, my expectation of a wicked show grew. Although the crowds were massive I couldn't see any problems ahead... Punters were happily entering and exiting the park where the BBC set was. But just as we reached the lower gate it was closed due to congestion. We were a bit peeved, but progressed on to the next gate. Just as we reached it, it too closed, but there was a massive push and loads of expectant revellers pushed in past the Police (who now apparently work for Showsec), unfortunately we only managed to get on the end of this push and didn't manage to make it in before the police regained control of the gate. Elsewhere people were trying to rip down the fence that surrounded the arena, and in certain areas they were successful and a few people slipped in before the security arrived with big spanners to fix it. A bit pissed off at the situation we made our way through the crowd to the main entrance, which was also just letting out a steady stream of people before it too was closed. Whilst speaking to the Police they said that they were asked to close all the gates by Showsec because of public safety - but as we would find out later this was not the case. Although it may have been done with the right intentions, it was not done at that time to prevent crushing inside. This was because when we made it in there were big open spaces in the crowd from about half way right to the back, and if it were to aid in public safety it had totally the opposite effect creating crushing and anger outside the entrances as more people gathered to get in and struggled for space with the passing procession. We waited for a while in the vain hope that they would open the door again, but the Police practically told us to jump the fence (which hoards of others were doing anyway). It was the only way we would get in. So we progressed further round to a slightly quieter spot and jumped over the fence. Like a bunch of idiots we found ourselves in a pen that meant that we would have to climb another fence, but we actually had a great viewpoint of the stage and decided to stay where we were. Just as we got in place De La Soul took to the stage and the crowd went mental. People, out of sheer frustration at being held back by the Police for what appeared to be no apparent reason, started streaming over the fence - including some girls in high heels! Everyone was desperate to see the Hip Hop Crew of the moment and hear them perform tracks from their new LP. The Police and security were causing more of a problem by blocking the gates and erecting a fence in the first place - what other sound has a security fence? Almost immediately as De La got going it seemed as though a speaker stack blew or something (how often does that happen to Hip Hop?) and the sound level dropped severely. The people at the back could hardly hear anything! It is pretty bad when the main sound at carnival can be overridden by passing floats! Anyway De La Soul persevered and played through some of their best known tunes including oldies like 'Me Myself and I' and ran the usual routine of splitting the crowd into left and right and playing them off each other. But only the first half of the crowd was getting into it and De La knew something was up. Mace could clearly be seen saying to Pos off mic, 'What the f* happened to the sound?' The whole time the show was on our pen was steadily filling with people, but all they wanted to do was see De La Soul. Things were getting out of hand though, as the fence was breached time and again. However the arena never filled right up even with this flow of people. A guy next to me popped his bottle of Champagne and elsewhere the air turned green. After about 20 minutes the sound level grew for a moment as if the engineer found the volume control, and a huge cheer erupted from the crowd, but the level went down just as quick and much of the crowd started to think about dispersing. As De La were performing 'Ohhh' the sound was shut off completely - I suppose by the Police because they could no longer control the fence, but it did the trick as everyone tried to leave, but perversely couldn't because everyone wanted to leave at the same time through the small gates created by the security. Duh - they had simply inverted the problem! It has been put to me that it is better that the fence was there and that the security shut the gates rather than only do something if people started getting injured. That is a very rational point and I find it hard to argue against when put like that. My feeling is that it was the small gates that were the main problem. My thinking is that people can only get crushed if they are pushed against something, if the fence isn't there they may get squashed, but ultimately they would get pushed out the other side. Maybe that concept is too simplistic/idealistic though. If one were to be cynical (what me?) one might think that the security and Police had deliberately tried to prevent the party goers from getting to see the biggest Hip Hop show of the year so far, one might also go so far as to say that the BBC were complicit in this action too with the poor sound (which seemed much louder for the other acts) and their shutting of the sound early; or maybe they are just incompetent as with so many of the other venues that try to do Hip Hop and provide poor sound that I have had the misfortune to experience over the years. I do understand that Hip Hop utilises extreme frequencies and that it is tough for a sound engineer to get it right, but there is no reason why they should be able to make Ragga loud and not be able to manage it for Hip Hop. So what would be the reasons for this possible conspiracy? Everyone was polite and friendly so the conspiracy is more subtle and I see it in all spheres where people try to take direct action peacefully. The powers that be try to step in and either overtly shut it down or try to provoke a situation where they can say that the crowd was out of control or lawless and therefore discredit them. I thought I saw both these scenarios played out at the Radio 1 stage, however the party goers weren't going to get agitated today. But why would the powers that be do that? Well here we had well over 2000 pure Hip Hop fans peacefully partying and that challenges their power. Ask yourself - how much time and effort has been put in over the years to produce a negative stereotype of Hip Hop associated with gangsterism, violence and crime, which they can use to undermine those politically active within the community? You may think I am completely over reacting, but just look at all the press in the aftermath of Carnival and draw your own conclusions. I would imagine that one is safer going to Carnival with over 2 million people attending over two days and only about 100 arrests than going to a football match for example. Anyway I digress, and when it became apparent that there would be no more sound we left - the fence we had previously climbed lay tangled on the floor behind us and the Police who were trying to stop people coming in were now helping people out over the twisted metal. We made our way through the still huge crowds to the Chalice sound system for a bit of serious Dub, smoking, JD and Coke and Jerk Chicken. We partied to cover versions of famous tunes like 'Everything You Own' amongst a knowledgeable and appreciative audience. At about 7:30 the MC came on and said that these were the last two tunes, but managed with re-winds, and re-re-winds and the crowd simply not letting the DJ stop, to spin it out until about 8pm when the sound was finally shut down. The next task was to get out of there, but that is easier said than done - we decided to skip the tubes as they are often too packed and take ages to queue up for, so we walked along the procession route checking the last few floats and continuing to party on our way to Paddington. Overall it was a great day out and passed completely trouble free for me, although we should take time out to remember the two men tragically killed as Carnival came to an end. The Police should be commended for their largely laissez-faire attitude and mainly being inobtrusive, especially their tuning a blind eye to a bit of burning which never hurt anyone. Although perhaps they take this action to the extreme by not intervening when they should and over-reacting occasionally when they should have let it lie. They appear unable to adapt their plans to evolving situations and unusual environments. I for one thought that the later TV coverage was patronising and very poor, and almost ignored most of carnival choosing to almost entirely featuring the BBC stage, but this did mean that they did screen almost the entire De La Soul set (although they edited the song order) and if you saw that you heard better sound than the people did live. There are some serious issues, which need proper attention from the relevant authorities regarding the size of Carnival and why it is hemmed into such a small place. It is a multi-cultural jewel, which should be treasured and nurtured rather than shackled and demonised. People are voting with their feet, the masses want to attend Carnival, more so each year. Next year I'll be going both days. - QED | profile © ukhh.com 1999 - 2000