Notting Hill Carnival turns sixty in 2026. To mark it, Carnival 60 brings together a six-month programme of heritage events across Notting Hill and Westbourne Park, produced by Notting Hill Walks and More Curricular CIC. Running from May to October, it tells the story behind the mas, the sound systems and the community that built Britain’s biggest street festival, through the people who lived it. Events are based at Mason & Fifth, Westbourne Park.
The talks and panels gather voices from across six decades, including three Directors of Notting Hill Carnival. A Windrush Day special with Ansel Wong CBE, instrumental in setting up UK Black History Month, takes place on 20 June. Allyson Williams MBE, who came to Britain in 1969 to train as a nurse and co-founded Genesis Mas Band, speaks on 11 July. Dr Claire Holder OBE, Chief Executive of Notting Hill Carnival from 1989 to 2002, gives the inside story of running Europe’s largest street festival on 23 August. Robert Singh tells the story of Grassroots Bookshop on Golborne Road in September. The programme closes in October, during Black History Month, with an In Conversation with Leslie Palmer MBE, who transformed Carnival between 1973 and 1975 by introducing sound systems and live bands and formalising the route.
Two panels anchor the season. What It Means to Be Caribbean, on 12 August, features Eugene Dusauzay, Zara Johnson, Samuel Shervington and Symone Williams. Past, Present and Future, on 26 August, brings four generations together with Rosita Lynch, Linett Kamala, Alexander D Great and Leslie Palmer MBE.
“I grew up in west London and played mas, so Carnival is part of who I am,” said Yvette Reinfor, Founder and Director of More Curricular CIC. “Sixty years is a milestone worth marking properly – not just with the parade, but by sitting with the elders who built it and hearing it in their own words.”
Guided walks run monthly, tracing the streets where the history happened. A free exhibition, In Full Colour, opens from 17 to 19 July with artwork by local schoolchildren and family workshops. Two heritage suppers follow in August. Carnival itself returns on Sunday 30 and Monday 31 August, sixty years on from the first.
Walks are £10 each or £24 for all three, with under 16s free. Talks and panels are £6.
The full programme is at nottinghillcarnival60.co.uk.
