The art of community.

Notting Hill Carnival turns 60 this August, returning across the bank holiday weekend with massive scale. The Diamond Jubilee edition runs from Saturday’s Panorama through Sunday’s J’ouvert and Children’s Day to Monday’s Main Parade, with sound systems and stages carrying the weekend from street to street.

The outdoor Carnival traces back to 1966, when local resident and social worker Rhaune Laslett organised a children’s street party in a neighbourhood marked by racial tension and poor housing. Russell Henderson’s Steel Band began moving through Portobello Road with pans around their necks, and what began as a community gathering quickly blossomed into one of London’s defining cultural events.

Six decades later, Carnival is simultaneously spectacle and social infrastructure. Steelpan, calypso, soca, mas bands and sound systems keep the weekend loud, but many of the communities behind them work all year, offering skills, rehearsals, creative training and belonging well beyond August.

The weekend begins on Saturday 29 August with Panorama and Junior Panorama at Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance Park, celebrating steelpan at competitive volume. Sunday starts early with J’ouvert at 6am, followed by the Children’s Day Parade, sound systems and stages. On Monday, the Main Parade begins at 10.30am, bringing handmade costumes, bands and joyous movement through the streets. At 3pm on both Sunday and Monday, Carnival pauses for a 72-second silence in memory of the 72 lives lost in the Grenfell Tower fire, as well as members of the Carnival community who are no longer here.

This is London at its most alive. Come in your boldest and brightest outfit and ready to celebrate community, creativity and impossible-to-contain joy.