Original version

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Radio

World Service Radio

The Documentary

Documentaries

Factual

Investigating global developments, issues and affairs.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

The Documentary: The Carnival: 50 Years in St Pauls

Magazines & Reviews

Sport

Costume - St-Pauls Carnival, Bristol

24/11/2018 GMT

The Carnival: 50 Years in St Pauls

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The Carnival: 50 Years in St Pauls

Marking the 50th anniversary of Bristol’s cultural gem – the St Pauls Carnival

Marking the 50th anniversary of Bristol’s cultural gem – the St Pauls Carnival.

The St Pauls Carnival held in Bristol in south west England, was conceived as a celebration of Caribbean culture in the style of an English fair, as a way of uniting new migrant communities with their sceptical neighbours. But as time has worn on, the event has taken on a life of its own attracting hundreds of thousands of people and with it new challenges. In 2015, fed-up with internal bickering, the Arts Council pulled its funding for the event which led to the Carnival being cancelled every year since.

Narrated by Bristol’s first poet laureate Miles Chambers, from costumes to sound systems this tale looks at the history of the St Pauls Carnival, meets the family of four generations who all have a stake in it, and follows the new organisation grappling to appease a fractured community in order to put this year’s event on. Failure to do so “will spell the end of carnival forever.”

(Photo: Elaborate costume of a skull with wings worn in the annual St Pauls Carnival parade in Bristol. Credit: Loop Images/UIG/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Documentary

The Carnival: 50 Years in St Pauls

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service

About BBC World Service