Legendary comeback

After a three-year hiatus, St Pauls Carnival is back, celebrating African and Carribean culture and honouring legends from the past, present and future. With a series of fringe events starting from 22 June, we take a closer look at what’s in store for the legendary comeback...

Bristol’s celebration of African and Caribbean culture, St Pauls Carnival, is returning to the city’s streets this summer after three long years away. With a theme of Learning from Legends, the 2023 celebration will commence with a series of fringe events from 22 June, marking the Windrush 75th Anniversary, and will culminate in the iconic day-long traditional Caribbean street carnival on 1 July.

This year will mark the first full carnival day since 2019, which will see over 100,000 people celebrate in the heart of Bristol’s St Pauls community. The Learning from Legends theme will be particularly poignant to Bristol’s African Caribbean community following the passing of Bristol Bus Boycott activist and Carnival forefather, Roy Hackett MBE on 3 August 2022. The theme was felt to be an important way to pay homage to Roy and to many other local legends who have been lost through the pandemic years.

This year marks 60 years since Bristol’s Bus Boycott when Roy spearheaded a months’ long boycott of the Bristol Omnibus Company, challenging its systemic racial discrimination in recruitment. His actions, and those of other fellow Bristolians, paved the way for the Race Relations Act 1965. The University of Bristol awarded Roy a doctorate in science at his funeral.

The year 2023 also sees the 75th anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush arriving in Britain on 22 June 1948. This important historic event will be marked in the traditional fringe events in the run up to the 1 July and on the day itself.

Commenting on the Carnival 2023, executive director of St Pauls Carnival, LaToyah McAllister-Jones said: “We’re well underway with our planning for the return of Carnival after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. This year was always going to be a big one but is all the more important as we celebrate the lives and contributions so many people have made to carnival.

What’s more, St Pauls Carnival has teamed up with Gloucestershire County Cricket Club to present the first ever T20 Carnival Clash on 17 June. Hosted at the Seat Unique Stadium in Bristol, this one-off celebration will bring a Caribbean flavour to the Gloucestershire v Kent Spitfires Vitality Blast fixture. The event will feature special pre-match performances from Carnival artists and music will be provided by Carnival DJs blasting Reggae, Soca and Calypso sounds from the islands. Food stalls will also offer flavours from the Caribbean, creating a truly authentic experience for fans.

In keeping with this year’s theme, Carnival Clash T20 will bring together cricketing legend and current Gloucestershire President, Syd Lawrence, with St Pauls Carnival’s current chair, Levi Roots. This year will be the first full St Pauls Carnival for Roots, who was appointed in 2021. Commenting on this year’s plans, he said: “I am really excited about seeing Carnival back in full technicolour on the streets of Bristol. While we have continued our work in the last few years through smaller scale events, I am looking forward to seeing Carnival come to life under the Learning from Legends theme to mark such an historic year in some many ways.”

Executive director of St Pauls Carnival, LaToyah McAllister-Jones, said: “This year was always going to be a big one but is all the more important as we celebrate the lives and contributions so many people have made to carnival.

“Since it began, Carnival has played a central and active role in challenging the status quo and this year’s celebration will be an important one for us all to acknowledge the challenges those who have gone before us have faced in blazing a trail to ensure African Caribbean culture is preserved and celebrated.” n

• For more information about St Pauls Carnival 2023, visit: stpaulscarnival.net. All images courtesy of St Pauls Carnival