Good Times! Notting Hill Carnival 2010

posted on September 6th, 2010 by in Event, Photography, SEEN

Sorry, mates, I have been a little lazy updating this blog in the last couple of weeks.

The reason for this is mainly our little excursion to Notting Hill Carnival on the last weekend of August. The days defore going, I could not really think of anything but the Carnival, and after returning, I got sick because of four joyful days with many ours of raving, drinking, and skanking out to great music, and very very little sleep.

But I am back on track and first of all I would like to share some impressions from the Carnival weekend.

For the seen. crew, it all started off Saturday night, when we went straight to the Urban Nerds X Bigger Than Berry Carnival session in Shoreditch after moving into a shitty eight-bed doghouse near Bayswater station. The warehouse was already ram when we arrived after quite a bit of tipsy strawling around following the sirene-ish voice of Katy B performing live. On the bashment floor, The Heatwave was doing it right. Then, Toddla T took over alongside Lady Chann for a while before Gabriel Heatwave stepped back in to please the massive.

Sunday then was straight soundsystem joy for us. Those who know us know that we are a bunch of ignorant fucks when it comes to Soca – that is why the only time we saw the parade was whenever we had to cross it in order to move or out the Carnival area. Anyway. Sunday lived up to its name and we spent the whole day emptying cans of Red Stripe and eating Jerk Chicken in front of the speakers of Jah Observer, Channel One, and Nasty Love. Unfortunately, we did not make it to The Deadly Rhythm party at Brixton at night – but it turned out that taking it a little easy the day before Monday was a good decision.

When we got to the Red Bull Music Academy place under the Westway on Monday at around 11am, people already started to line-up like crazy. Those who attented the party last year know why: Red Bull not only books a set of great DJs and artists for Carnival Monday (this year, Douster, Poirier, Joker, Rodigan, Major Lazer and Lee Perry were on the bill), they also hand out drinks and food for free for the whole damn day. Doors opened at 12 and what I especially enjoyed in the seven hours to follow was the fact that this year the original dancehall flavour ruled over electro stompers despite the rather hipster-esque setup. Especially Poirier Sound and Rodigan treated the crowd wicked with excellent selections.

Check a bunch of photos from Notting Hill Carnival weekend I uploaded to the seen. flickr account and make sure to listen back to the sets from the Red Bull party over at the Music Academy page.

PS: Also check a video of Rodigan mashing the place up from minute one, Gabriel Heatwave’s Carnival rundown on Eddie Stats’ Large-up blog, and a nice selection of NHC 2010 photos over at Hey Rudie.


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