"Leeds West Indian Carnival is Europe’s longest running authentic Caribbean carnival parade. What started in the 1960’s as one man’s remedy for West Indian homesickness is now the perfect blend of jaw-dropping costumes, infectious tropical rhythms, mouth watering food and entertainment for everyone."
'stunning display of colour and sheer joy that winds its way through the streets of Leeds, builds with events that present the best of carnival culture.'
- Takes place annually on the last monday of August (bank holiday)
- 'Sensory delight'
- 'Probably Yorkshire's brightest day'
- Original sounds of the West Indies
- Costume art
- Caribbean
- Represents the cultural and artistic legacy of Leeds
- Workshops run to share the artforms with communities, collages, schools and companies
History:
http://maxfarrar.org.uk/docs/CarnivalHistoryWYAS.pdf
Origins 1966-7
The Leeds West Indian Carnival was created by Arthur France, MBE, who arrived in Leeds from St Kitts-Nevis in 1957. In 1966, his friends Frankie Davis from Trinidad, and Tony Lewis from Jamaica, all students at the University of Leeds, organised a carnival fete at Kitson College (now Leeds City Collage - Technology). Arthur France then decided they should be a carnival parade along the streets of Leeds, as well as an indoor festival of music and costume.
"People said I was crazy" - nonetheless with the help of other, the Carnival was on the road for the first time in 1967. Arthur remains the chair or the committee.
Leeds or London?
British Caribbean-carnival events first appeared in London in 1959, initiated by Claudia Jones, at St Pancras Town Hall. Cabaret including Trinidad All Stars and Hi-Fi Steel Bands took place too.
A Caribbean carnival presence was included in the 1966 Notting Hill street fair, along with people from all over Europe in their national costumes.
However - the first ever West Indian carnival parade, organised by British Caribbeans and composed largely of black people in carnival costumes with their steel bands took place in Leeds in 1967.
It was only in the early 1970s that the Notting Hill street fair was turned into a Caribbean-style carnival, following the trend that Leeds had set.
Notting Hill's carnival now attracts up to 2 million people, and Leeds (the next largest) 100,000.
Its origins among the formally free, but still impoverished and angry Africans in the British Caribbean islands were shrouded in violence, amongst the participants, and against the colonial authorities.
1990s Carnivals
'Although the Leeds West Indian Carnival has deliberately avoided the
professionalisation that has overtaken the Notting Hill Carnival, following the
massive corporate sponsorship it has obtained, the Leeds Carnival grew in
size and stature during the 1990s. This was largely due to the increased
expertise of committee members, several of whom had been on the
committee since the start; to the increased involvement of Carnival organisers
in other towns in the north and the midlands; to the extra sponsorship
obtained; and to extra activity by Hughbon Condor as a consultant to groups
who wished to produce a Queen or a troupe but who lacked some of the
expertise required.'People's accounts:
Arthur France said when he tried to involve the Leeds black community in carnival in 1966, the vast majority were opposed, claiming that carnival was a degrading, low-class activity. Now that it has consistently proved its worth, it is not only the Leeds Caribbean community that eagerly looks forward to the festivities each August, with hundreds of people parading in their costumes and thousands attending the events.
Thousands more people of all cultures from all over the UK, Europe, America and the Caribbean, come to Chapeltown and Harehills to watch the parade from all over Leeds and the north of England.
- Since the early 1970s I have taken an active part in the Leeds West Indian Carnival, which I regard as the most important cultural festival in Leeds. - Max Farrar
Location and route:
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