Notting Hill Carnival is more than the carnival procession (although that's the most photogenic part in my opinion). It's also a sort of street festival free-for-all. All over the Notting Hill neighborhood people set up static sound systems and blast music until the formal closing time at 9pm.

There was an enormous presence of cops on the street. After dark when the whole festival gets a bid more seedy, I saw a white man and black man get into a shouting match. Each belonged to a group of same-race friends. A black woman stood in between the shouters and waved down a (white) police man who instantly stepped in and shoved the white shouter over towards his group and yelled at him. A good bit of diplomacy I thought, siding with the black guy to avoid the "police targeting the black community" problem. I was impressed.

The Carnival theme for 2004 was "freedom and justice." In light of what I witnessed I would also like to add "racial tension" as a theme as well as "garbage." There were no garbage cans which meant that everyone dropped their garbage on the ground. I have never seen so much garbage scattered around in my life. I appreciate how the Brits are less litigious than Americans making en masse littering and public drunkenness possible. A total suspension of social norms and orderliness in true Carnival spirit.

The British attitude is that if you're stupid enough to hang around Notting Hill after dark with all the broken bottles and drunk people then it's your own damn fault if you get cut or fall over. Poor judgment really. In a slapstick comedy moment I slipped on a banana peel and almost fell over.

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