Christopher BarrettFrom driving floats at Notting Hill Carnival as a child to taking over as the vast event’s CEO, Matthew Phillip has been closely involved throughout his life in what has been the UK’s biggest and brightest street party since the mid 1960s.
An explosion of spectacular costumes and pumping rhythms against a backdrop of colourful Caribbean culture and cuisine; the inimitable event attracts around 2 million people each year and is the biggest carnival outside Brazil.
For the latest edition of the Access All Areas Backstage Podcast, Phillip discusses how the event has for him, his family, and many in the community, long been much more than a two-day party over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Phillip’s father was a co-founder of one of the oldest and most popular mas bands in London, the Mangrove Masquerade Band. Mas is short for masquerade, and the band’s players are often bedecked in eye-catching costumes. Phillip discusses the often-misunderstood meaning of the masquerade that stretches back to the time of slavery.
Among the many other subjects touched on include the challenges and changes around event security, the carnival’s huge economic and social importance, uncovering the global reach of the carnival when digital content substituted the physical event during the pandemic, and how when he first attended the event dressed as a sailor in the early 1980s he never dreamed he would end up running it.
The conversation was recorded at The Tabernacle in the centre of Notting Hill, the carnival’s HQ that’s not only home to the event management team but also sees everything from costumes being developed to bands rehearsing.
As with all episodes, the podcast is not only available to watch on YouTube (below), you can listen to via all the main podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple and Amazon.
Previous festival heads to feature in the AAA Backstage series include Boomtown’s Luke Mitchell, Parklife’s Sacha Lord, Black Deer Festival’s Gill Tee, Secret Garden Party founder Freddie Fellowes and Live Aid promoter Harvey Goldsmith.