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ST PAULS CARNIVAL 2025: PREVIEW - HOW DID ST PAULS CARNIVAL BEGIN? WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?
ST PAULS CARNIVAL 2025: PREVIEW - HOW DID ST PAULS CARNIVAL BEGIN? WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?
The iconic St Pauls Carnival is set to return to Bristol’s streets tomorrow (Saturday, 5th of July), bringing with it sound systems, food, and that notorious Bristol spirit we know and love. Revered alongside London’s Notting Hill Carnival as a celebration of Caribbean culture, it also serves as a commemoration to survival in the face of displacement and oppression.
From the scent of jerk-smoke filling the air to the crackle of a vinyl needle through a sound-system, the streets hum with the reminder “we take up space”. In the run up to the event, I wanted to reconnect with its cultural and deeply political (grass)roots.
The first St Pauls Carnival was held in 1968, 6 years after Jamaica gained independence from Britain as a colonial power. During that period, Britain was undergoing significant cultural change, especially in the context of immigration. About 75,000 immigrants were entering the UK per year during the mid-sixties, which increased social and spatial tensions across UK cities and towns.
Many of those arrivals, dubbed as the Windrush generation, came from the Caribbean; between 1948 and 1971, a large amount of the UK Caribbean community helped to rebuild post-war Britain. In their suitcases they carried rhythms, recipes and the resilience which would later fuel their fight for equality.
In 1963, the organisation who later created St Pauls Carnival coordinated the Bristol Bus Boycott, protesting against the Omnibus ban on hiring ethnic minority drivers. They succeeded in overturning the rule, and paved the way for the Race Relations Act (1965) which criminalised racial discrimination in public places. This was expanded in 1968, making it illegal to refuse people housing, employment, or public services based on ‘colour, race, or ethnic origin’.
I would like to point out that this was just 60 years ago – less than a lifetime. While British law may have finally recognised that immigrants are not second-class citizens, the social struggles of ethnic minorities continue to persist today.
At the time, reggae served as the loudspeaker for the Britain’s Caribbean community, translating their lived hardship into bass-rich anthems of protest. Mainstream radios largely shunned the genre unless major labels airbrushed out its political potency.
It was this exile that birthed sound system culture in the UK, where improvised, home-built rigs and instruments were set up in underground circuits to provide a charged atmosphere for people to feel held, heard, and seen.
Reggae and sound system culture became the space for not just migrants building a home away from home, but many others who felt they had been cast aside to society’s margins: radical students, punks, hippies and the like. It was the dance-floor where politics met pleasure.
Credit - Beth Long, Nowadaze Festival 2024
Fast forward to 2025 and St Pauls Carnival ‘Back a Yard’ programme continues to serve as an annual reminder that community is an act of resistance.
The now sold-out free Circomedia programme runs from noon till 6pm, where venues including Lost Horizon and Lakota are hosting ticketed line-ups. Expect the hallmark features of Carnival: music, flags, feathers, boas, drumming, food, and games.
Following the announcement of this year’s full programme, St Pauls' Producer Jamell Ackford, said:
“We’re incredibly proud to reveal this year’s Back A Yard programme, a true celebration of the strength, creativity and culture embedded within our community. Guided by the theme Roots of Resistance, the line-up honours our heritage while creating vital platforms for
local artists and voices to shine.
From music and storytelling to food, family activities and more, each part of the programme reflects the richness of African Caribbean culture. This is about holding space for connection, joy and shared experience, and we’re excited to celebrate with everyone.”
Credit - Eddie Hubble
It is important to note that St Pauls will be running a smaller event this year, due to the financial pressures being experienced by the events sector.
In 2020 it cost £500,000 to run Carnival, a figure that will have only increased in today's cost of living crisis. Even in its streamlined form, the day relies on grants, donations, volunteers, and community goodwill to keep running.
If Carnival moves you, whether its the food, music, or what it stands for, consider donating through their official website to help keep the celebration free and alive for years to come.
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