Carnival Insights
Commentary, analysis, and perspective from the heart of global Carnival culture. Pax Nindi and the Global Carnivalz team on the issues that matter to the Carnival sector.
Featured
Every year, the same conversation. Carnival is described as a celebration, a spectacle, a tourist attraction. Rarely as what it actually is: a form of resistance. From its origins in the enslaved communities of Trinidad to the streets of Notting Hill, Carnival has always been a statement of presence, of survival, of refusal to be invisible. We need to stop apologising for that history and start building on it.
"Carnival has always been a statement of presence, of survival, of refusal to be invisible."
— Pax Nindi
The current model — project-by-project grants, annual uncertainty, no core funding — is killing Carnival organisations. We need to make the case for sustained, multi-year investment in Carnival infrastructure.
Notting Hill Carnival is the largest street festival in Europe. It is also one of the most contested. A frank assessment of what the event does brilliantly, where it falls short, and what the rest of the sector can learn from it.
Three years of the Festival & Carnival Lab have produced something remarkable: a cohort of young practitioners who are technically skilled, culturally grounded, and ready to lead. The sector needs to make room for them.
Working in Kenya and Ghana has changed how I think about Carnival. The form is universal — the impulse to gather, to perform, to assert community — but the context is always specific. What UK practitioners can learn from African Carnival.
Junkanoo is one of the Caribbean's most extraordinary Carnival traditions. It is also one of the least documented. Why we started Junkanew TV, and why documentation is itself a political act.
Twenty years on from the National Carnival Arts Strategy, it is worth asking: what actually changed? An honest assessment of what the strategy achieved, what it failed to deliver, and what still needs to be done.
More Coming
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We welcome responses, challenges, and contributions from across the Carnival sector. If you have something to say, get in touch.