The 1959 event, held indoors and televised by the BBC, was organised by the Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones, often described as "the mother of the Notting Hill Carnival"[12] in her capacity as editor of influential black newspaper The West Indian Gazette, and directed by Edric Connor.

It featured the Mighty Terror singing the calypso "Carnival at St Pancras", The Southlanders, Cleo Laine, the Trinidad All Stars and Hi–fi steel bands dance troupe, finishing with a Caribbean Carnival Queen beauty contest and a Grand Finale Jump-Up by West Indians who attended the event.

[13] Another important strand was the "hippie" London Free School-inspired festival in Notting Hill that became the first organised outside event, in August 1966.

A street party for neighbourhood children turned into a carnival procession when Russell Henderson's steel band (who had played at the earlier Claudia Jones events) went on a walkabout.

[27] Leslie Palmer, who was director from 1973 to 1975, is credited with "getting sponsorship, recruiting more steel bands, reggae groups and sound systems, introducing generators and extending the route.

"[28][29][30] He encouraged traditional masquerade, and for the first time in 1973 costume bands and steel bands from the various islands took part in the street parade,[31] alongside the introduction of stationary sound systems, as distinct from those on moving floats,[32][33] which, as Alex Pascall has explained, "created the bridge between the two cultures of carnival, reggae and calypso.

[52] In 2016 the charge remained; however, in June 2017, the Carnival's new event management team introduced a revised media policy, with no request for any accreditation fees.

[53][54] In 2016, when the Golden Jubilee of Notting Hill Carnival was celebrated,[55][56][57] 42 hours of live video coverage was broadcast by music live-streaming platform Boiler Room from the Rampage, Deviation, Aba Shanti-I, Channel One, Nasty Love, Saxon Sound, King Tubbys, Gladdy Wax and Disya Jeneration soundsystems.

[58][59][60][61] The 2020 carnival was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,[62] although free live-streamed events were shown online across four channels.

There was juggling, pickpocketing, whoring, drinking, masquerade – people dressed up as the Archbishop of Canterbury and indulged in vulgar acts.

"[5] This huge street festival attracts around one million people every year to Notting Hill and highlights Caribbean and Black diasporic cultures.

The festival uses influences from the Jamaican dancehalls and British clubs, and the music is made loud enough for participants to feel the beat.

[76][77] Compared to other major music and art events such as Glastonbury Festival, Notting Hill Carnival has historically struggled to gain any live coverage outside of local media.

[80][81] Since the carnival did not have local authority permission, initial police involvement was aimed at preventing it taking place at all, which resulted in regular confrontation and riots.

Consequently, after discovering pickpockets in the crowd, police took a heavy-handed approach against the large congregation of black people and it became "no-man's land".

The Mayor of London's Carnival Review Group's report (published in 2004,[39]) led to the parades taking a circular rather than linear route, but a recommendation to relocate the event in Hyde Park has been resisted.

[93] In recent years, there has been much less serious trouble, and it is generally viewed very positively by the authorities as a dynamic celebration of London's multicultural diversity, though dominated by the Caribbean culture.

[citation needed] However, there has been controversy over the public safety aspects of holding such a well-attended event in narrow streets in a small area of London.

"[94] A report in 2004 by the GLA Policing Policy Director, Lee Jasper, criticised authorities for not addressing safety issues involved in over a million people attending a small inner-city residential area, quoting the Met Police spokesman Dave Musker, who in November 2016 said: "Each year … we come exceptionally close to a major catastrophic failure of public safety where members of the public will suffer serious injury.

[113] Despite its reputation for crime, Notting Hill Carnival arrests as a proportion of attendance is comparable to many other large events and festivals in the UK.