Steel drum roll – carnival organisers are ‘planning as usual’ for August
FOLLOWING Boris Johnson’s coronavirus road map, the organisers of Notting Hill Carnival said they are “continuing to plan as usual”.
The Prime Minister’s five month plan paved the way for struggling restaurants, pubs and clubs to find out when they’d be able to function as normal again.
And so many of the one million and a half Notting Hill Carnival goers are keen to know whether the August festival would still go ahead despite the uncertainty around the road map.
After Boris Johnson’s press conference on Monday, the official Notting Hill Carnival Twitter page said: “In response to all the enquiries... we are continuing to plan as usual for NHC 2021... and also preparing for every eventuality.
“Due to the uncertainty we are all facing... our board will not be making a decision until closer to the summer. Please look out for updates here.”
Earlier in February, CEO of Notting Hill Carnival, Matthew Phillip told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee that Notting Hill Carnival would have to be cancelled if current social distancing measures were maintained. He said the next three months would be “crucial” to whether the event would go forward.
Stage four of Boris Johnson’s road map, which is proposed to begin no earlier than June 21, would see all legal limits on social contact removed.
That includes no legal limits on the number of people who can attend weddings, funerals and other life events, and nightclubs being allowed to open again.
The uncertainty lies in the conditions that must be met in each of the road map stages before advancing to the next one. These conditions are: The coronavirus vaccine programme continues to go to plan
Vaccines are reducing transmission of the virus and people dying from it
Infection rates do not risk a surge in hospital admissions
New coronavirus variants do not fundamentally change the risk of lifting restrictions
Last year Notting Hill Carnival was cancelled for the first time in its history and hosted online instead.