CARNIVAL GOERS have vented their frustrations at the mainstream media coverage of the Notting Hill Carnival.

Thousands of Londoners took to the streets this weekend to celebrate the return of the Notting Hill Carnival for the first time since 2019 after a pandemic-induced break. The event was a huge success. 

However people who attended this year’s carnival criticised media reporting of the event as biased and inaccurate following the fatal stabbing of “kind-hearted and loving” 21-year-old Takayo Nembhard. The rapper died after police found him injured at around 8pm on Monday (August 29) in Ladbroke Grove, west London. A murder investigation has been launched.

His manager, Chris Patrick, said Nembhard,  who performed under the name TKorStretch and was due to become a father in November, had travelled from Bristol ‘to have a good time’. Nembhard’s death has renewed calls from Metropolitan Police officers to scrap the event.

However people who attended the event took to social media to criticise what they saw as biased and unfair media reporting. Marvyn Harrison, author, broadcaster and founder of support group Dope Black Dads, compared the media coverage of the carnival to that given to the recent Reading and Leeds  festival. A 16-year-old festival goer died at the latter event earlier this month.

Writing on Twitter Harrison said: “1.3m people attend Notting Hill carnival and 38 people get arrested. [0.0029%] ‘Nationwide headlines’.  105k daily Reading and Leeds Festival and they have a 16 y/o dying from Ecstasy, 50 people were ejected for ‘serious disorder’ [0.04%] and tents were set on fire. Silence…”.

In a follow up tweet, Harrison posted a screenshot in which he compared the media coverage of the Reading and Leeds festivals to the Notting Hill Carnival.

“No mention of the death at Reading and Leeds. Both passings are sad and should be equally reflected as ‘news’” he said.

“The updated number of arrests at Notting Hill Carnival is at 200 which means the arrest rate was 0.015 Still significantly less than Reading and Leeds with both having a tragic loss associated with it. All we ask is parity in reporting but also complete reporting.

Harrison went on: “Carnival at a challenge time is a great release which is free for all to enjoy and let there hair down in the face of the cost of living crisis. They don’t talk about why it started or how important it is or who attended JUST crime rates.”

Several others agreed with his comments.

Responding @kayziino said: “Can’t lie Im gonna say it because nobody else will idk why people are surprised even the 0.015% arrested is still majorly different in comparison to reading the only variable in the two is that carnival is a historically black event and the media will do anything to tarnish it.”

Celebrated PR entrepreneur Evadney Campbell tweeted: “Are you surprised? I’m not. I’m just thankful there’s someone like you trying to put the record into perspective.”

Another Twitter user, @wright_kenny, added: “They’ll stop at nothing to demonise us. Thank you Marvin for the stats.”

The Notting Hill Carnival is one of London’s most anticipated annual events of the year attracting over 2 million revellers from all over the world and 40,000 volunteers. It costs

around £7m, but this is dwarfed by the estimated £93m it generates for the capital’s economy.

However not everyone agrees over the event’s positive impact.

Every year, Carnival’s organisers face the threat of having the celebration relocated to a more regulated area of Hyde Park or cancelled entirely.

The Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF), the body that represents police officers, renewed calls for the event to be stopped altogether.

According to police figures 209 arrests were made at the carnival, including 46 for assault, 36 for possession of drugs, 33 for possession of an offensive weapon, 27 public order offences and eight sexual assaults.

There were 35 arrests labelled “other”, 10 for possession of psychoactive substances, seven for drink/drug driving, five for criminal damage and one each for theft and robbery.

The MPF said in a tweet: “Sad to report at least 34 Metropolitan Police officers were assaulted at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival. We are supporting colleagues. Every year our brave officers come under attack at this event. Colleagues dread policing it. And yet nothing changes.”

Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, described Nembhard’s stabbing as a tragedy and renewed calls to have the Carnival scrapped.

He told The Telegraph: “For the last two years my colleagues have spent the August bank holiday not being assaulted in large numbers. Why not? Because the Notting Hill Carnival did not take place.

“But today we are having to again face the fallout from policing the event. The tragedy is that someone has been killed.

“But also 34 of my colleagues have been hurt after coming under attack. One female officer was grabbed in a headlock and sexually assaulted.

“This is completely unacceptable. Every year we argue that this event should not take place but we are not listened to.

“There were 11,000 officers on duty across the weekend. For lots of them, this was their first experience of policing the carnival and they have been left extremely shocked by what they have seen and been subjected to.”

“We are simply not listened to and those who support the carnival do not seem to care what happens to police officers. The violence my colleagues face when policing this event seems to be the price we have to pay and that is a completely unacceptable situation.”

However, Twitter user @PietroBenito argued that the festival’s perceived demographics led to success or failure of the event being measured in terms of crime rates leading to skewed media coverage.

“Making Notting Hill Carnival look dangerous is a racist annual tradition for the media……” he wrote . “I’ve been to Reading and Leeds a few times tho. Every year I witnessed open drug taking, vandalism, theft and drunken violence.”

@PietroBenito added: “I’m not against people taking drugs at a festival per se, but a middle-class white kid caught with weed at a festival might get a caution, if anything at all; a black kid at carnival with weed is more likely to end up in cuffs.”

Nembhard’s girlfriend, Oshian Edwards, spoke of her heartbreak as she paid tribute to Nembhard with whom she was expecting a child.

“You was the most kind hearted, loving, funny and caring person,” she wrote in a post on Instagram alongside photos of Nembhard cradling her baby bump.

“I’m sat here with sore eyes and a heavy heart as I’ve cried consistently for the last 12 hours while carrying your unborn son. I will remind him daily about how great you were as a son, brother, boyfriend and friend too!”

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he was “sickened” by the stabbing.

“Violence has no place on our streets and we are doing everything in our power to root it out” he said. “I urge anyone with information to contact the police on 101 or anonymously by contacting Crimestoppers. There is no honour in staying silent.”