Up to 700,000 people due to attend Notting Hill Festival

[richard]

LONDON (AFP) - Up to 700,000 people are due to attend the annual Notting Hill Carnival, touted as the biggest street festival in Europe and a showcase for the capital's "multi-cultural splendor".

Organizers of the carnival, which Caribbean immigrants started here four decades ago, expect 200,000 people to attend children's day on Sunday and more than 500,000 for the main bash on Monday, an English end-of-summer public holiday.

It features parades with brightly-colored and exotic costumes and dances.

"Carnival 2006 promises to cap off this wonderful summer with an event showcasing the multi-cultural splendor of the capital," said Chris Mullard, chairman of London Notting Hill Carnival Limited.

The first carnival was held in the St Pancras area of the capital in 1959, the event moved definitively in 1964 to the west London neighborhood of Notting Hill.


Source
afp.com

Image: A carnival participant blows a horn during the Carnival Parade. Up to 700,000 people are due to attend the annual Notting Hill Carnival, touted as the biggest street festival in Europe and a showcase for the capital's A carnival participant blows a horn during the Carnival Parade. Up to 700,000 people are due to attend the annual Notting Hill Carnival, touted as the biggest street festival in Europe and a showcase for the capital's "multi-cultural splendor".