Hundreds of thousands of people have attended London's Notting Hill Carnival, the biggest street party in Europe, and the second biggest event in the world after the Rio Carnival in Brazil. The temperatures peaked at 31C, and performers were armed with spray bottles filled with water as they sought to keep cool, reported the Standard Evening newspaper.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard enforced 60 search powers in the carnival area. Some 97 people were arrested on Sunday.
The carnival debuted in the 1960s, as a political protest against the racism practiced against the black immigrants from the Caribbean. Then, it has been turned into a carnival gathering people from all ages, races, and social classes.
The first protests sparked in the Notting Hill Gate's Bembridge Street in August, 1958, when racist members arrived in a bus and attacked the houses of residents from Caribbean origins. In 1959, the Notting Hill Carnival launched as an unofficial event comprising a few concerts held indoor, then, in 1964, it moved to the streets.
Over two days, the British capital saw parades of huge trucks holding big speakers, and musical bands. The trucks were followed by participants who wore weird colored carnival garments.
This carnival, which saw the participation of Africans, Afghans, Kurds, Bengals, Bulgarians, Russians, and Brazilians in addition to people coming from the Caribbean and Southern Latin America alongside the original white Brits, emphasizes the ethnic diversity in the British capital.
During the carnival, the participants wore traditional costumes from their countries, and performed folkloric music, as well as jazz, hip hop, and other types.
The ethnic minorities in Britain still face many challenges. According to recent studies, they suffer from high poverty rates in London, unemployment, housing problems, and lack of decent healthcare services.
