Cancel the Notting Hill Carnival!

[Witchofwisteria]

AIBU. This year police have confiscated 49 knives and 70 offensive weapons total, including ACID and stun guns plus one stabbing. Over 400 people were arrested, up from 313 last year and I am starting to wonder when enough will be enough.

The streets are left in a state after the event and the cost to taxpayer is astronomical. I feel like the Notting hill carnival has lost its way and turned into a breeding ground for opportunistic thugs. The thought that someone was wondering round with ACID, willing to throw it into a crowd and scar however many tens of people it sprayed on is beyond sick. We are quite happy to say terrorists are a major threat to Londoners but these groups are a MUCH worse threat to our daily lives and it's just too risky to have this event when we know it's going to attract these nasty individuals and gangs.

I'm totally not a fuddy duddy and appreciate that things like rubbish being left and dirty streets are always going to happen with big public festivals (like Brighton Pride) but Notting hill is just seeming to get more sinister each year.

Time to cancel the festival for 1 year, sit down and re think how this could be made into a ticketed festival in 2020. The price of the ticket will help pay for the extra policing and security, fencing and security around the cordoned off area and contribute towards charities the festival supports. Think Hyde park concerts in the park type event, we need to keep people safe.

Still no sign of bridgetoc to tell me how and where I played the racist card I see. Totally agree, Wolves, spot on.

Crushing risk?
That's even more strange. How many injuries from crushing has there been in the history of carnival?

There have been lots of near misses in the past. Read the safety reports done in the past. It has included crash barriers being pushed over by the crush of people, police having to pull people out of a crushed crowd to stop a major incident, a shop window giving way under a crush of people. It is supposed to be much better organised now, so hopefully this won't happen. But when I went in the past, I thought it was dangerous in terms of possible crushing, and various safety reports from the past said the same thing.
And that is because it is unprecedented to have so many people in streets in such a relatively small area.

And if this had happened, it would not have been minor. There would have been a major disaster. The carnival I went to was seriously crushed. And as a result seriously scary.
In 2004 anti crushing areas were set up as it was recognised this was a major risk.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-set-up-safe-areas-to-avert-crush-risk-at-notting-hill-carnival-5356536.html
In 2016 safety reports say a major crushing incident was narrowly avoided.

Yes it was a while ago I went, but it scared me so much that I never went back. I remember disasters like Hillisborough and how easily people can be killed if the event is not very very well managed.

Just to add, I am not convinced you understand the realities of organising large events like this, if you think it is strange to have had any concerns over the years that there could be a major crushing disaster at NHC. Anyone who has an idea about such events can see that it is an obvious risk that would have to be well managed.

🙏🏻

To put 70 weapons into perspective, 2 million people attended.

Brighton beach gets covered with litter during Pride and it gets washed out with the tide because people are too lazy and utterly thoughtless to bin it or take it away. That's the only bit of Pride I hate as the sealife are seriously affected by the litter. Worthing Pride was cleared of litter overnight but a smaller first event.....this year! Cancelling Notting Hill will never happen. Organisers probably need to up their game re security

I’ve always felt very uncomfortable at carnival. One of the reasons I don’t attend anymore. The vibe is great on certain areas and in others you are made to feel like an alien.
I passed through about midnight with a group of friends and a couple of men made a pass at us, we ignored and carried on walking. Their way of dealing with the rejection was to throw bottles at us.

I love my history but people need to stop dragging the past up and move on! Slavery, windrush, white people are evil, other coloured people are victims. Blah blah blah. And copying bluelady, as a greenish Martian, I am entitled to say this without guilt.

The whole point is the event has outgrown the location. Nobody said you can't party even though it looks trashy as fuck. But move it so it's safer for everyone!

No bridgetoc yet? Funny, that.

you are just not interested in hearing that you and many others were accidentally racist

Where? Quote me. Quote where I have said anything like you've stated in your subsequent paragraph. Quote any sentence of mine that you feel is racist @Ummmmgogo. Seeing as you've told me I am racist without realising, I would just really like to be educated on how.

you are just not interested in hearing that you and many others were accidentally racist

Sorry that should have been in bold.

If you forget your history, how do you know where your going?

How can you have a conversation about NHC without bringing up the distasteful past? Avoid all you like, but seriously a discussion about NHC without mentioning the windrush gen is crazy.

I work near carnival - is it just me or was the fall-out worse than usual this year?

There's the usual 5 million NOS canisters (annoyingly easy to slip on), baggies, broken glass, litter, bottle of piss (BOAK) and everywhere smelling of piss but it looks like the graffiti has increased massively this year?? There doesn't seem to be a single surface not tagged. They even ripped the protective coverings off paintwork to scribble under it. Whole place looks a complete dump and stinks.

LostinLondon thats sexual harrassment and male entitlement and intimidation which happens everywhere.

NHC has most definitely outgrown the area in which it takes place. Festivals that get larger each year move to new sites; NHC needs to do this too.

I live in London, nowhere near Notting Hill but reasonably central. Years ago, I wouldn't have known Carnival was taking place but recently, increasing numbers of police are stationed at my local stations searching people for weapons, drugs, etc before they board trains. This never happened before. It has spread and grown too much to be contained in a small area of W London.

Don't cancel it, just move it, contain it and this will make it more manageable and ultimately more safe.

If it can't be moved, then it may have to be a ticketed event, a free lottery or something in order to limit numbers attending.

Shut down NHC but Brighton Pride is ok...are you sure you are discriminating based on the demographics of who attends each event? I do think that ticketing the event will help with those who spoil it for everyone, and bans should be issued similar to bans issued for football hooligans. One bank holiday a year to celebrate afro-carribean culture with music, parades and tasty food, should be regulated not banned.

The Brighton Pride Parade is free, but the after event is in a paid ticketed area. Not comparable at all.

Went to it a few years ago. Only good thIng I can say is I bought some lovely jerk chicken. The rest was not good. Men peeing in streets, got kettled for an hour by police as they’d shut all the tubes. Only one moaning was me, muddled aged white woman. The youngsters were so calm and sweet. Floats were ok.

Witchofwisteria, have you been brainwashed or what . You are happy to accept what London's Mayor tells you !!?

But it has been well managed enough so that there have never been any deaths.
Therefore the risk has been taken into account and minimised.

If you didn't feel safe at Carnival, weren't impressed by it, don't think the floats are that great
Then guess what, carnival is not for you and not aimed at you.

The police stepping up security makes carnival, and the areas around it, safer, not more unsafe. If you're worried about safety then this should be seen as a good thing.

It is a bit racist to suggest that shutting the NHC is an insult to black people. Do you think they are all drug taking, acid throwing, knife wielding thugs? It is the anti social and criminal elements which need to be dealt with and a good way to do that and support the decent, responsible, tax paying, hard working citizens of Notting Hill, many of whom will be the folks you mentioned, is to end the crime fest.