Sunday 24 August 2025
Time. 6-9am
@ Starting at Sainsbury’s, by Canal Way Roundabout
J’Ouvert is one of the last mysteries of Carnival, spoken about but rarely seen. The name comes from the French for ‘daybreak’. Instead of big trucks with stacks of speakers, you have steelbands, iron bands and bottle-and-spoon.
Quite how many will turn up is the big unknown. In 2024, we were told J’Ouvert had been cancelled (the reason was never explained). We laughed scornfully, rebelliously: no mere announcement was going to keep us away. And those who kept the faith had a morning to remember.
In London, J’Ouvert begins at 6am, so set the alarm early. At least the Night Tube will be running. Get yourself to the top end of Ladbroke Grove, by the junction with Canal Way (near Sainsbury’s), dressed in your most expendable clothing. Because this is going to get messy.
Walking up the Grove at that hour is a strange experience. It’s quiet and you seem to be the only person on the street. Is anything really happening? You check your phone – are you in the right place?
Then, your ears catch a thrilling ‘ting, ting, ting’. Yes – a steelband! And a crowd of people. It’s relaxed at first, subdued even; perhaps you wonder ‘Is that it?’ But a rhythm is developing within the crowd, generating a mischievous, anarchic energy, and suddenly the sharp morning air erupts with colour. Thick splats of paint land all around you, powder, flour, even eggs fly and turn their targets into impressionistic walking, running, chipping, wining works of art.
J’Ouvert is the last element of Carnival to retain the rooted feeling of a community celebrating itself unrestrained by the dead hand of commercialisation. It’s an expression of an uninhibited freedom that’s been lost from our clean and well-ordered lives, a link to our past selves, when fun was unconstrained. Enjoy it and defend it from those who’d steal it and sell it back to us.
