Notting Hill Carnival

Europe's largest street carnival brings Notting Hill to life every year for three days of costumed parades, sound systems and Caribbean culture, with more than a million visitors expected in a dense, winding residential area.

Born in 1966 from the Caribbean communities who settled in Notting Hill after post-war immigration, the carnival has become Europe's largest street event, celebrating Afro-Caribbean culture every year with parades of costumed floats, dozens of sound systems scattered through the streets and street food considered among the best on the continent. The 2027 edition runs from 28 to 30 August, with Saturday devoted to the steel band competition, Sunday to families and children, and the bank holiday Monday to the grand parade and the adults' procession.

The carnival area covers several square kilometres of the exclusive residential district of Notting Hill, mixing Victorian houses with pastel facades and tens of thousands of costumed participants, in a striking contrast between the usually peaceful image of the area and the boundless energy of the carnival over these three days of celebration.

With an estimated attendance of more than a million visitors over the weekend depending on the edition, the carnival is one of the largest street events in the world after the Rio carnival, with exceptional crowd density on narrow residential streets that were never designed for such numbers of pedestrians.

Every year the local authorities close a very large area to all motor traffic from the day before the festivities begin, including most streets in Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove and part of Kensington, a closure that lasts all three days and makes any journey by vehicle inside this area completely impossible throughout the carnival.

For residents and visitors staying right next to the closed area, often at prestigious addresses in Notting Hill or Holland Park, the question of transport mainly arises before and after the three days of closure: arranging all the necessary journeys before the roads close, and planning a pick-up point outside the area for any journey needed during the carnival itself.

LimoAirportGroup always advises its clients staying in Notting Hill over carnival weekend to plan their journeys well ahead, with a chauffeur positioned outside the closure area and a precise meeting point to avoid any access difficulties during these three exceptional days in the life of the district.