60 Years Later, Businesses On Notting Hill Carnival Route Are Boarding Up For Europe’s Biggest Caribbean Celebration

By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, LONDON, England, Fri. August 28, 2026: As Notting Hill Carnival marks its 60th anniversary this weekend, an estimated 2 million people are expected to descend on West London for what remains Europe’s largest street festival, and once again, local businesses along the route are boarding up their windows before the celebration even begins.

The precaution isn’t new, but it remains striking for an event rooted in joyful Caribbean cultural celebration since its founding in 1966. Shops, bars and restaurants across Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Grove have been advised to consider boarding up windows and installing temporary security fencing ahead of the weekend, with organizers, local authorities and the Metropolitan Police running resident and business drop-in sessions throughout July to prepare the area.

A new layer of security

Storefronts and residential buildings are boarded up with wooden and metal panels in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London, United Kingdom, on August 27, 2026, as business owners and residents take precautionary security measures ahead of the annual Notting Hill Carnival. Renowned as Europe’s largest street festival celebrating Caribbean culture and heritage, the massive two-day event is scheduled to take place on August 30-31, drawing hundreds of thousands of revellers to the area. (Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

This year’s carnival arrives with its most extensive security operation yet. The Notting Hill Carnival will take place in London August 29-31. The carnival attracts over one million attendees across three days and requires a large police presence due to the prospect of increased crime. Last year’s edition saw  2 murders, 8 stabbings, and 349 arrests: 72 for possession of an offensive weapon, 1 for possession of a firearm, 13 arrests for sexual offenses, 53 for assaults on emergency workers, and 61 police officers were assaulted over the weekend event. Fifty-five officers were assaulted. In the past two years, the Metropolitan Police have reported arrests for bladed weapon violations, stabbings, and assaults on police officers and members of the public. Historically, violence and arrests occur most frequently during the afternoon and evening portions of the carnival.

The Metropolitan Police Federation, representing 30,000 rank-and-file officers, has produced a hard-hitting 24-page dossier documenting what their members really think about their safety at the Notting Hill Carnival. Based on astonishingly candid quotes and comments from front-line officers who have worked at the annual event, survey results, newspaper cuttings from the last 10 years, and crime statistics from the Carnival.

Simon Hill, Deputy General Secretary of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: “For years we have made it known that officers don’t like the event. But we had no tangible evidence to support that.”

“I felt it was important to get some concrete evidence, to hear the views of officers who work Notting Hill Carnival so we could truly understand what they think of the event and whether they enjoy policing it,” he added. “We chose to focus our survey on the Notting Hill Carnival rather than another large-scale event because of the consistent volume of assaults reported by officers after the event every year. Officers also work approximately 30 to 40 hours over the two days, which can have a significant impact on their well-being. We are also extremely concerned about the public who attend the event being victims of crime that officers feel powerless to prevent due to the sheer number of attendees and crimes committed. No other event in London has this combination or level of issues for officers.”

Other comments received from officers in the Federation survey include:

• “Punched, kicked, hit with objects including bottles. Spat at and sexually assaulted.”

• “It is a dangerous environment with no concern for officer safety.”

• “As an ethnic minority, I often feel anxious about policing carnival.”

• “I would rather crawl naked through broken glass.”

• “I dread this event every year, it gets more violent each time. How many more officers have to get injured or innocent members of the public killed before anything is done?”

In response, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that live facial recognition and number plate recognition technology will be deployed for the first time this year, aimed at identifying wanted individuals before and during the festival. Last year’s use of similar technology helped identify nearly 100 people of interest and led to 61 arrests.

“We have taken full control but we are fully supported by the Metropolitan Police Service as well,” carnival chief executive Matthew Phillip told the BBC, calling the new measures “a massive step” for the event. Ironically, the US Embassy in the UK has put out a warning to “avoid afternoon and evening portions of the carnival.”

A celebration that endures regardless

None of the security preparation has diminished the scale or spirit of the celebration itself. Saturday’s Panorama steel pan competition, Sunday’s J’Ouvert starting around 6 a.m., and Monday’s Adults’ Parade, running from late morning into evening, will once again transform the streets into a vivid display of Caribbean masquerade, sound systems and culture, drawing visitors from across the UK and around the world now six decades running.

NewsAmericasNow will continue covering Notting Hill Carnival and Caribbean cultural celebrations across the diaspora.