One million to visit Notting Hill's Pagan Carnival
Pastor Dale Morgan
One million to visit Notting Hill's Pagan Carnival*
From correspondents in London
August 26, 2007 01:21am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
MORE than a million people are expected to attend this weekend's Notting
Hill's Pagan Carnival in London, an annual extravaganza of Pagan
Caribbean music and dance that is the biggest Pagan street party in Europe.
About 600,000 people are set to attend the children's festival tomorrow
and 900,000 the main parade tomorrow, a bank holiday, along a route that
snakes through west London, a spokesman for organisers Notting Hill
Carnival Limited said.
The free carnival, featuring hundreds of floats, food stalls, DJ sound
systems and steel bands, was started in 1964 by some of the wave of
immigrants who came to work in Britain from the Caribbean after World
War II.
This year, the event's theme is Set All Free, marking this year's 200th
anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the
British empire.
The carnival has been marred by violence in previous years - two men
were murdered there in 2000, and memories of riots in 1976 still linger
- and this year, the Metropolitan Police are deploying 11,000 officers
for the event.
At least 19 people suspected of planning to target the carnival were
arrested over alleged offences including robbery ahead of the event,
police said today.
Officials are setting up metal detectors at the exits of Underground
(subway) stations near the event in a bid to stop potential
troublemakers coming armed with knives and guns.
The pagan carnival comes after the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in
Liverpool, northwest England, on Wednesday that renewed concerns about
the increasing numbers of gangs in Britain.