About a million people are expected to descend on west London for Notting Hill Carnival, which will see performers dance through the streets in colourful costumes this weekend, as thousands of officers prepare to police the event.
The festival is a “fixture in London’s cultural calendar” and attracts similar numbers each year, the Metropolitan Police said.
It is one of the longest-running street parties in the UK and celebrates Caribbean culture with vividly costumed performers taking part in a parade through the streets with dancing and music.
The carnival is the biggest of its kind in Europe and is billed by organisers as “the greatest community-led event on the planet”, taking place every August bank holiday weekend.
It is also the subject of a large-scale policing operation, with around 7,000 officers on duty throughout the weekend to police the event this year.
There were eight stabbings and 275 arrests at the 2023 event.
On Saturday, performers competed in Notting Hill Carnival’s Panorama evening, which is the UK’s biggest steelband competition and sees five bands play a ten-minute composition from memory with no sheet music allowed.
Children’s Day is held on Sunday, featuring family-friendly activities and a parade, where youngsters in colourful costumes are encouraged to dance in the streets.
It is sometimes known as Family Day.
The Adults’ Parade is held on Monday, described by organisers as the climax of the carnival with “party vibes” – but it is also where most arrests are made.
Met spokesperson Commander Charmain Brenyah said she had grown up near where the event is held in west London and has “many happy memories of the music, costumes, floats and fantastic atmosphere”.
But she added: “Sadly, however, we know that for a minority of people, Carnival is an opportunity to commit crime or to seek out violent confrontation.”
The Met said it will be deploying a specialist crowd management cell for the second year in a row, to monitor crowd density and flow.
In order to staff the event, Met officers will be joined by colleagues from the City of London Police and the British Transport Police.
Rick Prior, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said many “hard-working” officers will be “missing valuable time to rest and be at home with loved ones” to police the event.
“We wish our hard-working colleagues a safe and secure policing operation at the Notting Hill Carnival,” he said.
“Many are missing valuable time to rest and be at home with loved ones to work across the bank holiday weekend at this demanding event.”
Transport for London (TfL) urged people travelling to the carnival to plan their journeys in advance as it warned some stations could be much busier than usual.
The Labour Party described the event – which was first held in the 1960s – as a “vibrant celebration of Caribbean culture and black history through music, art and dance” in a social media post on Saturday.
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