{"id":369315,"date":"2025-08-24T08:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T08:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369315\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T08:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T08:21:17","slug":"notting-hill-carnival-2025-what-to-wear-and-take-to-londons-biggest-street-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369315\/","title":{"rendered":"Notting Hill Carnival 2025: What to wear and take to London’s biggest street party"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"STYLE\"<\/p>\n

Every year, it astounds me just how many Londoners have yet to attend Notting Hill Carnival<\/a>. Even people who have lived in the city their entire life somehow manage to bypass the event, which is one of the world\u2019s largest street parties. <\/p>\n

For those new to carnival<\/a>, some guidance<\/a> on what to wear, pack and prepare for is key. The best thing you can possibly do is ask regular attendees and \u2014 even better \u2014 members of the British Caribbean<\/a> community, who started the Notting Hill<\/a> event and have kept the vibe alive since 1966<\/a>. <\/p>\n

If in doubt, opt for comfort, convenience, and celebration, and importantly \u2014 not appropriation. Here are some of the top tips for what to wear at Notting Hill Carnival 2025.<\/p>\n

1. Wear something comfortable<\/p>\n

\"Notting<\/p>\n

Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever attended Notting Hill Carnival knows these simple facts: it is busy (busier than perhaps any crowd you have ever been in<\/a>), it is hot (compounded by the amount of people you\u2019ll be chest-to-chest with all day) and it can get messy. <\/p>\n

As regular Notting Hill attendee Soleil told the Standard: \u201cDo not wear any nice clothes because you\u2019re going to end up feeling uncomfortable with the sweat, the heat, the body heat around. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is paint, there is chocolate. Drinks are going to get spilled. If someone\u2019s rum punch lands on my T-shirt, I\u2019m not really gonna get vexed, \u2018cos I\u2019m probably gonna end up throwing it [out].\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Make sure your outfit is easy to change out of<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing that becomes immediately apparent the moment you touch down at Carnival, it’s the lack of toilets. That\u2019s the nature of a street party<\/a>, but luckily the residents of Notting Hill and the surrounding areas are well prepared for that: you can pay to use toilets in residents’ homes, and it usually costs somewhere between \u00a31 to a fiver. <\/p>\n

Being able to pee quickly is key: you will face long toilet queues, so try and wear something that allows for easy access. <\/p>\n

3. Be colourful \u2014 but don\u2019t appropriate<\/p>\n

\"Notting<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Notting Hill, you have to dress up. Notting Hill is an explosion of colour, so even if your outfit is comfortable, you can at least make it colourful. <\/p>\n

That being said, no one needs to see a thousand white people in Jamaican flag colours when they have absolutely no connection to the country, so be mindful of appropriating something that isn\u2019t yours. The same goes for hairstyles: you do not want to find yourself in an Adele bantu knots situation. <\/p>\n

4. Bring a bag that can fit drinks, cash, and a portable charger<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PA Wire<\/p>\n

Unlike music festivals, Notting Hill is entirely BYOB, and no one\u2019s going to stop you if you try and bring a bunch of cans in. However, Red Stripe prices reach a premium the closer you get to the epicentre of Notting Hill, so you\u2019re better off stocking up early (and further away), then carting the cans around with you in a bag. <\/p>\n

Even better: bring an attachable soft water bottle or a CamelBak filled with booze, so you\u2019re not annoying anyone off with a great big backpack full of tinnies. <\/p>\n

Plus: do not forget cash (signal is terrible, card machines stop working, you will regret it) and a portable charger (your phone will die at the exact time you are trying to navigate the way home, trust me, it always does.)<\/p>\n

5. Wear comfortable shoes!<\/p>\n

This is not the time to break in those new boots. You are going to be doing 30,000 steps, standing in queues, jostling through crowds, and dancing, dancing, dancing. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s very much a trainer situation. Don\u2019t wear your best white trainers, though, because they\u2019ll get scuffed. Just whip out some of your coolest and comfiest second-in-command trainers instead. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every year, it astounds me just how many Londoners have yet to attend Notting Hill Carnival. Even people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,129234,393,4884,257,67730,80864,129233,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-369315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-carnival","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-notting-hill","14":"tag-notting-hill-carnival","15":"tag-street-party","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115082774853878342","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}