STILL INSPIRING CITY’S BLACK COMMUNITY AFTER 50 YEARS
AS ARTHUR France looks out at the sea of people gathered in Chapeltown this afternoon, he may just take a moment to soak up the atmosphere and reflect on the phenomenal success of an event that without his hard work and determination wouldn’t exist.
Leeds West Indian Carnival was the first in the country to combine costumes, music and a procession and is also the longest-running Caribbean carnival parade in Europe.
More than 160,000 flocked to last year’s event and with visitors coming from as far afield as Canada, the United States and Trinidad and Tobago to mark the 50th anniversary, today’s crowd could nudge the 200,000 mark.
The carnival has become one of the biggest events on the city’s cultural calendar and is at the forefront of Leeds’ bid to become European Capital of Culture 2023, but when Arthur France and a small band of fellow organisers held the first carnival they could scarcely have dreamt how successful it would become.
Arthur was just a teenager when, like thousands of others from the Caribbean, he left his native Nevis home to make a new life in Leeds in the late 1950s.
As a youngster he was fascinated by the vibrant street carnivals in his homeland and wanted to bring a similar splash of colour to the streets of Leeds.
“When I came to England I felt we needed something to bring us together and the idea was to have a street party where you didn’t need an invitation,” says Arthur, now 80.
He first suggested starting a carnival to the United Caribbean Association, an organisation set up to represent Leeds’s Caribbean population, but the idea was initially rejected.
Undeterred, Arthur persisted and was supported by influential local figures like Willie Robinson and Calvin Beach, who was president of the association at the time, and by 1967 preparations were under way. The date was set for August Bank Holiday Monday, a tradition which has continued through the years.
At the time, the Summer of Love was in full swing with The Beatles’
album providing the accompanying soundtrack.
But while metropolitan London might have been swinging, it was a different story in many of the industrial towns and cities across the North of England.
In the Leeds inner-city suburb of Chapeltown, home to most of the city’s growing West Indian population, it wasn’t peace and love that filled the air but racial tension.
In the US, the Civil Rights Movement was at the height of its struggle and in Britain, too, there was social and political upheaval. “Black people were under a lot of stress,” says Calvin Beach. “There was a very charged atmosphere, the racism that was evident at that time was not only affecting the grown-ups it was also affecting the children.”
He says in those days racism was an everyday experience for many black people. “They were feeling it in their jobs and they were seeing it in their schools.”
Yet it was against this turbulent backdrop that the carnival was born. “We saw the carnival as a pick-me-up for the black population and that’s how it evolved. It was a way of easing some of the emotional pressures that black people were experiencing. But we had no idea at the time just how big it would become.”
Much was riding on the success of that inaugural festival. Arthur bought a dozen chickens to provide enough feathers for the costumes for the five Queens at the Carnival Queen show, which is held a few days before the main event.
The Jubilee Hall in Leeds was packed for the event, and among the judges was the Lord Mayor, which gave the event a real boost. So, too, did having one of the first black television presenters, Clive Alleyne, as compere.
About 10,000 people attended the carnival. The procession wound its way to Leeds Town Hall where a large crowd was entertained by a steel band competition.
Merryl Francis, who is now 80, was among those involved. “To be part of the first Caribbean carnival here in Leeds, it was just great. You could see the joy on the people’s faces.”
He’s taken part in every festival since. “It’s brought people closer together and it’s also brought people here from other cities because they think Leeds is the best carnival... There’s no carnival like the Leeds Carnival.”
He says it has helped foster a better relationship between the police and the black community. “People thought we were a bit funny getting dressed up and dancing in the street, but coming from the West Indies we were accustomed to all this. But what amazed me was that after a couple of years you had police officers joining in and dancing in the street in their uniforms.”
Arthur believes the success of the first carnival was crucial. “It was very important because it proved we could organise a festival and it proved a lot of people wrong.”
Calvin, 77, agrees and points out that it drew people in from outside Leeds. “Everyone paid for their own costumes and people came to our carnival from places like Huddersfield, Manchester and Birmingham.”
The Leeds troupes were invited to take part in the first Notting Hill Carnival which followed not long after. “In a way we jump-started the carnival in Notting Hill,” he says.
Calvin moved to Canada, where he still lives, in 1978. “The carnival was never a two-man operation it was always a team effort. We had the younger people on our side and that’s why it was a success in those early