Notting Hill Carnival 2018: Sunday should be reclaimed for children, says organiser

The Sunday of Notting Hill Carnival should be reclaimed as “children’s day” to improve relations between the event and the local community, an organiser said today.

Matthew Phillip, director of the Carnival Village Trust, wants the first day of Europe’s largest street party to put young people “on a better platform” than in previous years.

He also revealed his wish for more “community stewarding” to improve security at the event, which saw more than 300 arrests last year.

The comments came in Mr Phillip’s first interview since the CVT was awarded £100,000 in grant funding from Kensington and Chelsea council to help organise the carnival. Sunday is traditionally seen as the quieter, family-friendly day, but CVT claims children’s participation has declined as revellers have taken over the day.

He told the Standard: “The adults have the Monday. In anything you do in life, the children are the future. That’s their day, and they are not just an after-thought. We need to put them on a better platform.” A survey carried out by the council found 53 per cent of respondents backed “reclaiming” the Sunday as children’s day.

Mr Phillip, who is also leader of the Mangrove Steelband and the director of the Tabernacle events space in Notting Hill, said the CVT would take a “community approach” to organisation, looking to employ more local people as stewards.

He said: “For about 10 years, the stewards at the carnival have been shipped in from all over the country and they don’t have any local knowledge or connection. There is a view that the police have taken over carnival.

“We firmly believe that the principle of community stewarding lies at the heart of making this event successful and safe, because those people have a vested interest in the area.”

At a meeting of Kensington and Chelsea’s Conservative leadership this week, councillor Mary Weale backed community stewarding to stop the August bank holiday weekend event feeling “overly policed”.

The grant funding awarded to the CVT had for the past three years gone to the London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprises Trust.