Carnival is a community event that refuses to die, despite budget cuts, gentrification, and rainy bank holidays. The stabbings get the clicks, but the real story is the 1,999,992 people who don’t get stabbed. The ones who share food, high-five strangers, and wave flags from Jamaica, Grenada, and Trinidad.
Also, fun fact: More people get arrested for drug possession at Carnival than for violence. That’s right—the biggest crime wave is a guy selling weak weed near a sound system playing soca. Scandalous.
So next time someone asks, “How many stabbings at Notting Hill Carnival?” you can say: Eight, out of two million, in a city of nine million people. Then ask them: “How many amazing, peaceful, joyful moments did you miss while staring at that number?” Go dance. You’ll be fine. Probably. (Don’t come at me if you get a hangover.)
