Carnival’s return this year is left hanging in balance
SOCIAL DISTANCING IN STREETS WOULD BE ‘DIFFICULT’
NOTTING Hill Carnival could face cancellation again if social-distancing measures remain, says the event’s CEO Matthew Philip.
Mr Philip spoke to MPs of the digital, culture, media and sport committee and said the next three months were “crucial” in deciding the carnival’s fate and asked for more guidance around when in the vaccine roll-out events would be able to resume.
Mr Philip said: “It would be very difficult to hold the carnival in its traditional format on the streets with social distancing in place. It would be devastating for a second year in a row.”
Mr Philip said that could mean cancellation but assured MPs that the event was resilient and efforts would be made to run it in a different format.
He added: “It would not take place in its traditional format. We would always hope to do something.
“Carnival means too much to too many people for us to simply ignore it, so we would always try to find a way of celebrating carnival for its artistry and what it means to the community.”
Last year Notting Hill Carnival, which is usually attended by up to two million people, was held online after being cancelled in May 2020.
Mr Phillip said: “None of us have got a crystal ball.
“We don’t know what is going to happen and we have to wait and see.
“I don’t think there is a cut-off point. We will have to continue to plan as we have been and wait and see.”
Mr Phillip warned “there is a risk of ending up with something that is not managed” happening this summer if large gatherings cannot take place, but small indie venues or licensed premises can open.
It would depend on the regulations that are in place, he added.
Tory MP Damian Green said: “If we have a relaxed but not a completely relaxed outside environment, that could almost be more dangerous. It would be August Bank Holiday weekend and a couple of million people will out of habit head to Notting Hill and there would not be anything there to control them.”
MPs heard the carnival is made up of hundreds of small communities which “literally” put on the event, rather than one organising body, and the occasion involves a range of year-round activity.
Covid-19 has meant that “nothing has been happening” and while some people have been trying to do things digitally, “that has become very crowded very quickly which has made it difficult to do something in that space and stand out,” according to Mr Phillip. He urged the MPs to try to find a way to help fund small creative firms that support the carnival, such as costume designers who make it a “spectacle that helps represent London”.