Mas means masquerade or carnival, and one of the most massive carnivals is held each year in London's Notting Hill, home of Europe's biggest street festival. Last year 1.6 million people from all over the world travelled to celebrate this unique spectacle. But the carnival is bigger than the Bank Holiday weekend festivities. There are many exciting preludes to the main event: costume galas, calypso competitions and the steel band contest. This programme follows six people as they prepare for the various carnival events, ranging from 11-year-old Juanita Constantine, a gala hopeful, to Rudolph Crosnierde Bellaistre, a Parisian reveller.