London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprises Trust (LNHCET) has appointed Street Event Company (SEC) as its event manager for the iconic annual event, now in its 51st year.
SEC will “manage the logistics and delivery of a better, safer Carnival” and says it has “the collective professional expertise and specialist knowledge” to meet that demand.
On 23 June it launched a new website for NHC at www.nottinghillcarnivalguide.com, described as “the official, authorised online event management guide [which will] provide up-to-the minute news on Carnival for visitors to the event, participants in the bands and sound systems and for those living in and around the streets of Notting Hill”.
Street Event Company has also set up new Facebook and Twitter accounts for Notting Hill Carnival.
The decision to appoint – for the first time – an event manager for Notting Hill Carnival is in line with recommendations of a report by the Public Realm Scrutiny Committee of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) on 27 March.
RBKC envisaged a professional event manager would “counter the current negative narrative attached to Carnival” and “provide considerably more information on Carnival to residents and the community in future”. With a single organiser being involved in event planning, health and safety, managing contractors and participants, there would be more opportunities for “improving and developing the artistic experience of Carnival”. The council also hopes the event manager will exercise better control over participants, “ensuring that the nature of their participation is appropriate for the event nature and venue”.
According to Carnival press spokesman Andrew Hillier, SEC is run by “professionals who have all been working with Notting Hill Carnival”. Directors are said to be David Morgan and Ortho Barnes.
