It is that time of year again when the sun’s out and everyone starts booking their summer festivals. For many people in the UK and worldwide, festivals are a wonderful way to interact with others, spend days or weeks together with friends and family. To some, these festivals are used to reconnect themselves with their culture and background, celebrating people who have achieved high and have come from nothing. For some, these festivals are religious based and is a sign of appreciation. There are many reasons why people enjoy festivals, but rest assured that the positive energy surrounding these festivals and big events are something to treasure.
Photo: FLAVOURMAG
One of the most well-known festivals in the UK is ‘wireless.’ The wireless festival is a rap music festival that takes place every year in London. Wireless started off as a rap and pop festival but has recently expanded its audience to hip hop and more urban music, and doing this has brought a huge increase in their audience. From the start of wireless back in 2005, it has since proved to be well thought of and had particularly good strategies to keep the growth year by year. From 2010, it has had well known talents such as: Kayne west, Stormzy, Bruno Mars JayZ and Justin Timberlake. As we can all imagine, these benefited the growth of the wireless festival immensely and made the audience intrigued as to what the lineup of artists was going to be the following year. Another major step the wireless festival took was the expansion of the areas they covered. They first started off in London and held festivals in Leeds in 2006-2007 as well as Birmingham in 2014. They even held a festival in Frankfurt, Germany. This once again gave them more exposure and more people from the UK and Europe were aware of the festival. Having all these different strategies, including having more than one type of music genre, having big named artists making features and expanding their festivals elsewhere around Europe, have really made the festival one of the greatest and something many people look forward to each summer. In recent times (2019), the London venue reached a capacity of 49 thousand people which goes to show the challenging work of the company and the excellence it has shown throughout the years to be at the place they are now.
Photo: NME
The Notting Hill carnival is an annual Caribbean festival. The festival takes place in London and has done since 1966. The Notting Hill carnival takes place this summer, from Saturday 27th August and ends on Monday 29th of August. The festival was first started in light and in response to the complex state of race relations at the time. Claudia Jones, the women who played a major part in the creation of the Notting Hill carnival, is a Trinidadian human rights activist. Due to all the outrage that arose from the treatment of Caribbeans, she decided to organize a carnival in St. Pancras town hall on the 30th of January 1959. This carnival arranged by jones was a way of showing solidarity and togetherness within the growing Caribbean communities. As we go forward in time to 1966, a community activist by the name of Rhaune Laslett and Andre Shervington prepared to organize a local street festival which would encourage the Caribbean community nearby to participate. This was seen as a way of escaping difficulties and enjoying time during the tension surrounding them. The Notting Hill carnival represents dedication and resilience. It’s also a representation of the cultural diversity of the London communities. Over the years, there has been massive backing and support from people all over London. It has really pressured and challenged certain aspects of people and has most definitely raised more questions in society. It has also created a wider understanding for the people of London and has contributed heavily to making London a more diverse place. This Notting Hill carnival is another great example of how excellence is shown. Despite there still being a lot to do in society regarding racism, the hard work of people like Claudia, Rhaune and Andre inspire more people to stand up and contribute to making a change.
Written by: Robert Jefferson
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