Preview: St Paul’s Carnival 2018

The first St Paul’s Festival, held in 1968, was attended by a couple of thousand people. They brought out West Indian cooking from their living rooms, chatted with their neighbours and watched local schoolchildren accompanied by two floats parade through the streets of the area they’d come to call home. It did exactly what the organisers had hoped: bringing the community together. Friends told friends about the summertime event and in the following years numbers doubled, then doubled again.

By the time Carnival last ran in 2014, more than 100,000 people descended on St Paul’s to party, and six figure numbers are expected again this month for its triumphal return. This year, ten hours of entertainment are promised across 19 performance areas, a procession featuring 500 children from sixteen schools, 131 DJs, 60 artists and 50 dance troupes. Despite a massive ramp up in the scale of the event, it has retained the community feel and Caribbean carnival heritage that makes it an event like no other in Bristol’s packed festival calendar.

Fire up your sound system and get ready for St Paul’s Carnival to come back in a riot of colour for 2018.

Procession

More than 500 schoolchildren have been involved in the preparations for this year’s carnival procession

The celebrations start at midday, as the procession starts out from Wilson Street and turns right into Portland Square, passing all the way around the square anti-clockwise. Travelling up through Surrey Street and Upper York Street, the dancers with their giant costumes, decorated floats and spectacular puppets will pause at the junction of City Road where there will be a judging point.

The procession will then continue down Ashley Road, Lower Ashley Road, Tudor Road, Fern Street and then onto Newfoundland Road, finishing up at St Paul’s Sports Centre at around 4pm.

Stages

This year’s event will again feature stages and sound systems, all showcasing the best of the city’s diverse talent.

It wouldn’t be Carnival without bass so strong you can feel it through your body from the other side of the road. As well as the 15 sound systems dotted through the streets, which have a long association with Carnival going back to its roots 50 years ago, this year there are two live music stages and lots of performance areas. An array of live acts and DJs will play throughout the day and evening, filling the air with dancehall, reggae, dub, calypso and drum and bass until 10pm.

Windrush is the main stage (on Grosvenor Road, next to St Paul’s Learning Centre), where you’ll be able to hear live artists including home-grown grime MC Jay 0117 and legendary urban reggae heavyweights Laid Blak amongst many others. On the Brunswick Square stage, artists including Nia Melody and Uri Green will be showing what they are made of, while there will also be music at the Coroner’s Court behind Lakota from the likes of Krust, Kosheen and RSD.

The World Dance Stage in Brunswick Square will celebrate dance from across the African and Caribbean diaspora with energetic performances from 50 dance troupes, and there will be performances throughout the day on two more stages: Unity in St Paul’s Square and Mandela’s Hideaway in St Agnes Park.

Family activities

Children’s activities, including carnival-themed arts and crafts, will be based in St Agnes Park

Care has been taken for Carnival to be an inclusive event with plenty going on for even Bristol’s youngest residents. Once the hip-shaking theatrics of the procession has passed by, families can find ongoing activities over in the children’s zone in St Agnes Park.

Mandela’s Hideaway will host a glut of free carnival-themed art and craft activities and games, as well as being home to its own dedicated stage with dance and circus performances going on all day.

Lost children’s centres are located at St Agnes Park, Circomedia, City Road Baptist Church and St Paul’s Learning Centre.

Afterparties

Two massive official afterparties will take place at Lakota and Motion

Carnival ends at 10pm, when revellers will be faced by many official afterparties to continue the good vibes until the sun comes up.

Once the daytime music at Lakota and the Coroner’s Court end, the ticketed Alternate x Psyched night (£12 in advance) will start at 10pm, running on until 6am. A Bristol jungle legend, whose identity is being still kept under wraps, will headline, while Lenzman, Break and Lionpulse Sound are amongst the artists playing all night. The club will be kitted out in full Carnival decor with dazzling fire performers, and an all-night barbecue will fuel any revellers who are flagging.

On the other side of the city, Motion will be hosting some massive names in reggae, dub, bashment, jungle and bass (£10 in advance). In the main room, hosted by Cubana, Lee Scratch Perry will be joined by Mad Professor, The Blast DJs and Laid Blak – hot-stepping over from playing the Windrush Stage earlier in the day. Rumble in the Jungle and Bruk Off have the club’s other rooms covered, and there will be jerk chicken, cocktails and face-painting to add to the carnival feel.

Elsewhere, parties will take place at The Love Inn (free entry before 10pm and £4 after), the O2 Academy (£14 in advance) and Trinity Centre (£12 in advance).

St Paul’s Carnival takes place on July 7. For more information about what to expect on the day, including details of accessibility and road closures, visit www.stpaulscarnival.net