Notting Hill Carnival, Europe’s biggest and the world’s second biggest carnival (the world’s biggest carnival is Rio carnival in Brazil), has been taking place in London on the last weekend of August since 1964, when local black immigrants from the Caribbean, particularly Trinidad, decided to create a festival to bring together the people of Notting Hill. Believe it or not, this was one of the poorest districts in London then, rife with racism. So someone came up with the idea of a street carnival at which blacks could celebrate together freely, with costumes and steel drum music that hopefully would encourage everyone, black and white, to come out onto the streets, eat chicken, drink beer, dance to some great tunes and get stoned.It was a great idea, and not surprisingly was a huge success and became an annual event, chugging along for ten years until Jamaican style sound systems were introduced, attracting record levels of young people and swelling the weekend crowds to 500,000. Shortly after this, the increase in numbers led to trouble, and in 1976 1,500 police attended the Carnival, which ended in a full-scale riot, and violence dogged the event throughout the 1980s，after when it remained calm.Five disciplines go to make up the carnival as we know it today. Masquerade, Steelband, Calypso, Soca (the traditional music of Carnival) and Static Sound Systems all play their part on the two days of Carnival-on-the-Road. Everyone has a whistle and they use them - all at the same time! In 1995 over a million and half people jammed the narrow streets to watch the carnival procession and dance to giant outdoor sound systems. The streets are full of the sound of steel bands, giant sound systems and the smell of Caribbean cuisine. The costumes can take all year to make and there is fierce competition for the best floats.