One Month On: Reflecting On An Incredible Carnival Day
LaToyah McAllister-Jones, Executive Director of St Pauls Carnival, looks back at this year’s Carnival celebrations.
Today is Emancipation Day and it’s also a month since we took to the streets of St Pauls for the first full St Pauls Carnival since 2019. Now that the dust has settled it feels like a good time to reflect on bringing Carnival back post-covid.
This year Carnival was framed by the theme Learning from Legends. This theme was about remembering those community legends who we lost, including one of Carnival’s founders, Dr Roy Hackett MBE, celebrating the lives and contributions of our living legends, and acknowledging our role in nurturing the legends we are raising. In a year that celebrates the contributions of the pioneers who answered the call and arrived 75 years ago, as well as the 60th anniversary of the Bristol Bus Boycott, it has been an important and emotional time to bring Carnival back to the streets.
For me, Carnival is so much more than a street party. Of course, the party is a huge part of why Carnival is so special. But it is the celebration of African Caribbean art and culture, born out of a story of rebellion, resistance, resilience and the strength of the human spirit. It’s more than just jerk chicken and sound systems.
1st August is observed as Emancipation Day, commemorating the day the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect in 1833. Carnival is a part of this story, as within lies the experience of our ancestors which we remember through mas and the procession. It is important that people who come to celebrate our culture with us understand the true meaning of Carnival.
This year was a big one, with an estimated 130,000 people on site at its busiest. I am really proud of the event’s safety record with no major incidents throughout a 10-hour day. So many people have spoken about the ‘good vibes’ and a feeling of safety. I did a long day and my feet hurt at midnight when I came into event control for the final ‘hot debrief’ – but I felt those good vibes everywhere I went and want to thank everyone who contributed towards making it a great community day, including those of you who came along to party!
I have learnt how important Carnival is to our community and also to the city. It is clear that its return was greatly anticipated and that platform from African Caribbean talent and artistry is vital. We have received such warm messages of appreciation from the community and are pleased the event has been so well received.
I am also aware of the level of disappointment when it was announced that due to fundraising challenges, Carnival will take place bi-annually until a more sustainable model is developed. This was obviously a difficult decision for the organisation to take but a key part of the mandatory responsibilities of a CIC board is to ensure the financial health of the organisation. It is a responsibility that St Pauls Carnival takes seriously as the recipient of public money. We’ll be sharing a blog post here soon to help people understand this decision better.
We all love Carnival; that was seen this year in how it was received and how amazing the day was. The simple truth is that an event at the scale of Carnival costs a lot, and fundraising at that scale remains a challenge in a post-covid landscape.