Notting Hill Carnival: pensioners remember how Europe’s largest street festival began

Pensioners who helped start Notting Hill Carnival have told of how the event has changed dramatically since its early beginnings.

Set up in 1964, Carnival is now the largest street festival in Europe.

Founder and steel drum player Sterling Betancourt told London Live: “Acklam Road and Portobello Road are very important because this is where the carnival all started.

“Three of us started the carnival, including myself, and today it’s only me that is alive – both my colleagues have gone.

“We took our own route right around Portobello Road, down Notting Hill Gate, Holland Park and down Ladbroke Grove – passing the police station.

“The police were looking outside through the windows at this procession going down and they didn’t know what the carnival was.

Masquerade artist Dexter Khan said: “In those days we never saw police on the road, we never had any stewards – it was just the three of us coming together and we were lining and having a good time.

“The grassroots were from the Caribbean but today it’s from the whole of the United Kingdom.”