London Notting Hill Carnival: A Celebration Of Caribbean Culture For Unity, Essay.

Write report on London Notting hill carnival event. 

Theme

In every event or function that people organize ranging from wedding to party, the event owners always want the best function. The need for a quality event is what brings in event designing (Beard and Russ 2017: p.370). Event designing is the practice in which people outline the goals of the event and organizing all the displays needed in the event. For instance, in a wedding, the décor, food and invitation cards must be beautiful from the sight and the aroma. Brown et al. (2015) claims that, event designing has several benefits to the achievement of a successful event. The first importance is that the event would be a good-looking event as compared to another non-designed event. The impression that the pictures and quality venue show the guests in the event tantamount to good preparation. One will have the real picture of an event and hence good memories.  Secondly, the event owner enjoys the time with the guest because there is no disturbance, everything is organized (Carnival,2018).

In this assignment, it is going to elaborate on London Notting hill carnival event. Charles (2017) argues that, Notting Hill Carnival is an annual celebration that is usually organized in London in order to celebrate the culture of Caribbean communities. In several years, the event is usually organized in West London. Several parks and roads in West London mainly full to capacity at the time of the event. In order to accommodate several people, the event is mainly organized during holidays like the August holidays (Filippova et al 2017: p.365).

Frissen et al (2016) says that before organizing any event, there must be a set theme and motive towards the event. The carnival event if the history of the venue is traced, it shows clearly the reason for organizing this remarkable event.  According to the history, in 1959 people experienced several race riots in the venue Caribbean. After the fateful riots, bringing different races together have not been an easy task since then (Gerritse and van Olderen 2014: p.70). Drinking and eating together is one way that is well staged in uniting the different races. Therefore, the theme of the event translates to unity. Caribbean culture is marked by music drinks and delicious foods with the aim of uniting people together.  The decorum and pictures the designers of the event aim is to pass the message of unity. Several bands come together to sing and dance for the guests in a way of promoting unity.  Apart from the pictures and messages, everything in the event is mostly traditional rather than being modern to ensure that the traditional culture of a united team is depicted clearly (Getz and Page 2016). For the success of the event, there is always a day set aside for the children. It is always a day before the Notting Hill. Anyone who wishes to bring their children should always do so before the D-day in order to help the children have quality time in interacting inside the venue (Hammond, 2016). There are several beautiful decorations at the event. However, the most clothing for the dancers is the feather-like clothes. Wearing of feathers mainly promotes the Caribbean culture.

Content

The main message of the event is mainly unity and it is evident that millions of people attend the event (Henriques and Ferrara 2014). Therefore, the organizers ensure that they accommodate all people from children to adults. In exploring the content of this event, there are main parts. The first part is the music. Visitors enjoy dancing and the message in the songs displayed by the music is to unite the communities in the United Kingdom. Boys and girls engage in making costumes that are used during the event. The process is an impact because there are no longer riots in the city but full of entertainment. The second thing that is displayed in the event is the cultural food. Various communities are given chance to prepare the delicious meals and share with other people as the event moves on (Miettinen et al. 2015: p.30). The message the organizers is passing to the community and the young people is that everyone should stay in peace with the other people.

The branding of the messages and materials in the event also go hand in hand with the objective of the event. For instance, while making the costumes, the event designers write some important unity messages on the clothes to ensure that everyone is attracted to the event. However, cultures vary and there are many communities in the event, this explains why some communities may have specific costumes (Orefice,2018: p.28). The topics that are discussed in the event may vary according to age and consideration whether the person is a guest or have been attending the celebration. In promoting the message of unity, the event designers give specific topics to the children which ensure that even as they celebrate, they understand the need to be together as they grow up. On the other side, the elders had experienced the riot that led to the organizing the event (Ouwens, 2014: p.60). The event planners and designers organize specific messages to assist the elders to come out of the event equipped with messages for training young people to maintain peace.  

For a well-designed event, there is always the order of activities. In Notting Hill Carnival, the good designing process have given every day its own activity (Raj and Simpson 2015: p.28). For instance, from the quality arrangement, Sunday is always left for kids to entertain themselves. Sunday is a preliminary day before serious activities start. There are always few adults at this moment and children have the room to interact. Starting from 6 am to 10 am, ways are open for the guest to come in. their colorful powders for the children to smooth themselves with. Apart from that, children also paint each other making them look traditional and fit for the cultural event. After the effective painting, 10 am the children parade themselves with cool music sound going around the path just to make them happy the way the system suggested. The parading goes until 7 pm. The time is long to allow the new children to learn about the Caribbean culture and appreciate it. It also gives room for promoting unity and peace among the children. On the other hand, when it reaches Monday, the eagerly waited event kicks off. Several music bands assemble on Monday to entertain the guest. Dancers are all over the scene with a specific place set for them. Guest sit at a specific place while they are entertained. When it comes to eating, most foods are of Caribbean tradition. For example, animals such as goat, chicken, and other foods are prepared in a traditional way. Another important factor is that the clothes that the performers are set to put on depend on the weather. In some cases, it may be rainy or sunny therefore clothing changes. All programs are given its own time to ensure the visitors and children have quality time with the entertainment.

Program

When it comes to entertainment, the designers identify the most important things that can entertain the guest. The items include music, food, and clothing. If you start with the music, they are always traditional and expressed by the specific artist. The costumes are arranged in some traditional ways same to the music itself. Boys and girls spend time arranging the costumes. The costumes are always made of feathers. The feathers are so light and dancing also becomes easy at the end of the day. When it comes to food, it is a very crucial part of the entertainments. Funny foods are all over with quality aromas all around. The local dancers organize themselves into a group before the start of the event and when their turn, they enter the stage with the traditional attire entertaining the visitors (Richards et al. 2014). On the other hand, there are quality speeches from prominent people. The speeches are aimed at unity talks. The message tries to bring together the diverse communities together. They try to tell people that races are not what define people, it is good to live together in unity. The designers have chosen the three specific entertainments as they are the ones that mainly brings people together. Music reminds people of the best things to do. What lead to the event is on riots and the songs mainly elaborated why being racism is a nasty thing. On the other hand, the food prepared at the event are delicious and everyone feels happy. At the end of the day, one is able to appreciate another peoples culture. When one is able to appreciate others then everyone can live in peace with one another. Lastly, the clothing also sends various messages to the visitors.

Notting Hill Carnival is mostly organized in parks and on the roads. The reason behind the park venue is that several people attend the event, therefore, the park can be the best place to accommodate over a million people. On the other hand, the streets were initially used for riots, however, now it is important that people are educated that roads sides can also be turned into celebration points (Richards, 2014: p.38). When planning the park for the official party, there are places for dancing as other places are left for eating. The decorations on the wall are of a traditional type. Actually, the most used type is the Caribbean culture decoration. On the dancing floor, it is a bit raised to ensure that everyone can catch the glimpse of the matter going on the podium. Lights are all over the stage blinking from one moment to the next. Apart from the stage decoration, all the seats and the entrance are colorfully decorated. The decoration accommodates the message of unity which helps in bringing the communities together. The venue is arranged in a specific way, the children have their own place. The seats are well decorated with each of them having a strong message implying the importance of unity among people. When it comes to the floor, the arrangement is that the dancers are in front while the viewers sit back. In addition to the disco lights around the dancing podium, there are speakers which have been lifted up to enable other people to get the messages in the songs. The speakers are all over the park in order to serve the millions of people that have attended the event. The decorations enhance the attractiveness of the event as every new visitor who joins the events get to know what the event transpires.

Entertainment

When it comes to production part the event designers focus on various things. The first aspect is the sound. The sound that comes from the speakers should not be annoying, that is why specific speakers are used in the event. In addition to that, there are sound absorbers around the walls to ensure that the outside activities do not get interfered with because of the sound. Consequently, the issue of lighting the whole venue is another point to take seriously. In this event, the event designers have set the positions of the lights very well. There are different types of lights, there are the ones used for security purposes. These security lights are spread all over the venue to make the paths clear. Likewise, there are lights used on the podium where the dancers take on to entertain the visitors and the locals. The stage lights may vary in color depending on the costumes and type of dance in the stage. The colors are made use to send various messages to the audience (VALTONEN and MIETTINEN 2014: p.45). On the other side, there are screens around the park that assist those who cannot get what is happening on the stage to view it lively. The screens are spread to cover a large number of people around the park. The decorations or rather the ambiance of the park make everybody feel comfortable with the place. Quality ambiance assists in maintaining a large number of visitors in the region. There are theatrical elements also evident in the scene. For instance, the dancers always join the stage from behind where most people can have a look at them. The big congregation that attends the event assist the dancers to do their best while on the stage. They showcase most of the cultural practices that people enjoy watching.

Food is a vital requirement for the success of any party. In this remarkable event, there are various delicious foods that have been prepared by experts. However, most of the food is of traditions since this event is a traditional event. Everyone is at will to choose his or her best meal. The event planning and design have organized away of serving. Children are adults are separated from the point of serving. Even though the event is always free of charge to enter, when it comes to food one may require some cash to access other meals available in the event. Apart from the cultural food, there are drinks and alcohol in the event. Parents are always advised to take care of the children when it comes to the matters of drinking. There are many people in the event and controlling the huge number is not always easy. At the point of serving, the visitors are always requested to make some queue in order to make the serving process to be easy and effective. The special requirement when it comes to catering is the additional cash that can assist one to purchase other luxury foods. The menu of food is too wide and it may be difficult to restrain one from taking any type that he or she likes. The menu is always provided at the entrance of the serving point to make it easy for one to choose the meal of his or her type. In addition to the above, the point of serving are spread all over in the park to accommodate such a huge crowd. Some meals are even showcased by the cultural groups to influence people to buy them and promote various culture. The wide menu in the event makes people appreciate the diversity in the culture and also to continue coming to the event every year (Taylor and Kneafsey,2016: p.190).

Conclusion

For the success of this event, the designing is what made the event successful. The first reason for the success is that designing ensured that there is no time wasted while looking for any requirement. Everything had been put in place, it was only to implement. On the other hand, the visitors got the reality of the diverse culture in Europe (Wood and Kenyon 2018: p.180). One of the main goals of the event was to assist people to appreciate the available cultures that are in England. The goal might not have been a reality if there was no event designing. Apart from the above reason, the proper designing assisted in ensuring that the event was more joyous than ever. For instance, the dressing and the decoration on the stage provide the drama which made the visitors enjoy more. Many people got transformed with the design. It provided knowledge to other guests on how to effectively design an important event like the above event. Most importantly, the audience went out more united than ever, the riots group resolved to maintain the friendship. The reason is that the design brought a clear picture of the negative effects of racism.

References

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