British Council-Notting hill carnival

Transcript of the podcast

Interviewer: As you can probably hear behind me the carnival is in full swing, the sun is shining again and the jerk chicken is as tasty as ever. I’m just going to get off the main route here, (I think the procession should be coming by soon) as I’ve arranged a meeting with long-time resident and one time steelpan player Winston Perry in the Black and White café here on Elgin Crescent…Winston, how are you

Winston: I’m feeling very happy at the moment. Good to see so many people out and about enjoying themselves

Interviewer: There’s been quite a bit of criticism of this event in the last few years. Tell me, what’s your reaction to those people, local people who have had enough of the carnival, who say it’s grown too big

Winston: Well, I can’t deny there are a few more people here than when I started playing back in the sixties, but I think the media like to get hold of any little thing and blow it up out of all proportion. It’s only for three days in the year. If you don’t like it, you can always go away for the weekend.

Interviewer: I know some residents don’t like the crowds and having people knock on their door to ask for water and so on

Winston: They were always asking to use our toilet – so I stopped answering the door! These days they’ve got those chemical ones in the streets. Anyway, I’m never at home now for carnival. I got my usual place reserved down here in the café

…Interviewer: There are still sometimes complaints about the sound systems

Winston: We had a bit of a battle when they first appeared but it’s a question of mutual respect. When the mobile sounds come past, the soca, the calypso, most of them turn it down a bit. There aren’t so many as there used to be. And they all get packed up and finished by seven o’clock so you can still watch your Eastenders

?Interviewer: Hasn’t it all got a bit too…international

Winston: True. You get a lot of people from out of the area these days, other countries, Germany, Brazil…even politicians

Interviewer: So what do you say to those people who want to put an end to the festivities or move it all somewhere else

Winston: They been talking about Hyde Park. I don’t think it would be the same, though. It wouldn’t be ‘Notting Hill’ carnival, it would lose the local character…and the reason it all started in the first place… cause of 1958 and all that

?Interviewer: So will carnival still be here in another thirty or forty years

?..Winston: Oh I think so, even if I won’t! Now who’s going to buy me another rum

Answers