Triniboi Joocie

Why I love Notting Hill Carnival

NHC means the opportunity to participate and perform on the biggest stage in celebration of Caribbean culture in Europe. It’s provided a platform for many individuals to come and celebrate the Caribbean culture. NHC provides the opportunity for Caribbean artists to display their talents, while exhibiting a rich historical background. It means a freedom of expression.

My best NHC moment was in 2014 as I won the UK Road March Competition, which is a competition celebrating the song most played on the road over the two days of carnival. I was grateful enough to have the opportunity to celebrate this moment twice in 2014 & 2015.

My first experience of NHC was in 1998, when I was brought up from Trinidad and Tobago to play with Ebony Steel Band. At that time I was young but what stood out to me was the amount of non Caribbean people involved in the carnival and the atmosphere consisting of Caribbean food and music.

NHC is a very unique Carnival because in the Caribbean the music played in Carnival is predominantly Soca and Calypso whereas in NHC they have allowed other genres of music to be heard such as Afrobeats, Reggae & Dubstep. This I believe broadens the marketing of the carnival allowing new audiences to attend each year.

My favourite thing about NHC is the celebration of Steel Band, the procession on the road and being an active Soca artist for 10 years, it gives me the opportunity to move from truck to truck joining the masqueraders as they celebrate NHC.”