By Pawlet Brookes, Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage

In 2025, Leicester Caribbean Carnival celebrates an extraordinary milestone—forty years of cultural expression, creativity, and community celebration.  More than a festive display of colour and sound, the Carnival represents a vital part of Britain’s African Caribbean heritage: a powerful manifestation of resistance, identity, and diasporic joy that has transformed the cultural landscape of Leicester and beyond.

To mark this significant anniversary, Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage is producing a landmark documentary film, commissioning a new poem by award-winning poet Carol Leeming MBE FRSA, and launching a high-quality coffee table publication that chronicles the achievements and legacy of the Carnival since its inception.  These projects form part of an ongoing commitment to archive, honour and uplift the stories, voices and artistry of the African Caribbean community.

Carnival as Cultural Intervention

Emerging from the socio-political context of 1980s Britain, Leicester Caribbean Carnival was established as both celebration and intervention.  The 1980s marked a period of significant racial tensions, economic inequalities, and political activism, especially among Black communities resisting marginalisation and police brutality.  In this context, Carnival was a deliberate act of cultural self-determination—a space to reclaim streets, visibility, and dignity through music, dance, costume, and collective memory (Nettleford, 2003; Gilroy, 1993).

Leicester’s Carnival is rooted in the traditions of Trinidadian Carnival, where the performance of masquerade, steelpan and calypso challenged colonial order and asserted freedom.  It is also embedded in the UK’s Black cultural resistance movements, following in the footsteps of Notting Hill Carnival, which itself was born from post-Windrush community resilience.  In Leicester, the Carnival quickly became a focal point of Black pride, intergenerational learning, and artistic excellence, attracting tens of thousands of participants and spectators each year.

The Carnival’s longevity is a testament to the local community’s determination and creativity. It has weathered decades of funding cuts, policy shifts, and socio-economic challenges while maintaining a commitment to inclusive celebration.  It has not only offered a platform for local artists, designers, and performers but has also become a cornerstone of Leicester’s multicultural identity.

40 Years of Carnival: Documenting a Living Archive

To ensure this rich history is preserved, Serendipity is producing a new documentary that captures four decades of Carnival through the voices of those who built it—from the founding organisers and costume designers to younger generations who have inherited and adapted the tradition.  The film is an act of cultural preservation, offering both historical insight and emotional resonance.  It will feature rare archival footage, interviews, behind-the-scenes glimpses of mas camps and steelbands, and footage from key Carnival years that reflect broader socio-political contexts.

As Stuart Hall (1997) argued, cultural identity is not fixed but constructed through memory, narrative, and performance.  This documentary contributes to that construction, anchoring Leicester Caribbean Carnival within the broader trajectory of Black British history.  The film will serve not only as a public-facing celebration but also as an academic resource for future researchers, artists and educators seeking to understand the interplay between art, politics, and diasporic identity in Britain.

New Poetic Commission: “What a Ting” by Carol Leeming

In honour of the anniversary, Leicester’s own Carol Leeming MBE FRSA—poet, playwright, and performer—has been commissioned to write a new poem. Leeming’s voice has long resonated across the Midlands as a chronicler of urban Black experience, with her distinctive fusion of language, rhythm, and radical aesthetics.  The poem will be both an ode and an archive: a lyrical tracing of memory, sound, and resistance.

Drawing upon oral traditions and poetic storytelling, Leeming’s work affirms that Carnival is not merely spectacle—it is politics in motion.  Her poem will be featured in the documentary and the accompanying publication, forming a literary centrepiece that reframes Carnival as a dynamic artform deeply embedded in community survival and cultural affirmation.  Leeming’s poetry will also be performed at key events marking the 40th anniversary, affirming the role of spoken word as both cultural artefact and communal ritual.

Coffee Table Publication: Carnival in Print

Complementing the documentary and poem is a limited-edition coffee table publication that visually and narratively documents Leicester Caribbean Carnival’s 40-year journey.  Featuring original photography, archival material, personal testimonies, and critical essays, this publication will explore the aesthetic, social, and political significance of the Carnival.

It will include contributions from scholars, community leaders, and cultural commentators, providing multidisciplinary perspectives on Carnival’s evolution.  Topics will include costume and mas design, sound systems and music, youth participation, the politics of public space, and the Carnival’s role in shaping Leicester’s civic identity.

Importantly, the publication will archive the unsung contributions of the local seamstresses, choreographers, steelpan tutors, security volunteers, and food vendors whose work forms the invisible infrastructure of Carnival.  It is a testament to grassroots creativity and community-led cultural production, aligning with Paul Gilroy’s (1993) articulation of the “Black Atlantic” as a space of ongoing cultural circulation, resistance, and renewal.

Cultural Legacy and the Future of Carnival

As Leicester Caribbean Carnival enters its fifth decade, it continues to offer a template for how diasporic communities can claim space, narrate history, and foster belonging through celebration.  In an era marked by increasing cultural commodification and political marginalisation, the Carnival remains fiercely autonomous—an unregulated space where joy and politics co-exist, and where artistic expression becomes a vehicle for remembrance and hope.

Moreover, the 40th anniversary projects—film, poem and publication—are part of Serendipity’s broader strategy of cultural stewardship.  As custodians of Black British heritage, Serendipity is committed to ensuring that festivals like Leicester Caribbean Carnival are documented with the same rigour and respect accorded to institutional forms of culture.  This includes digitisation, oral history, academic inquiry, and artistic commissions that affirm Carnival not only as performance but as heritage.

The anniversary is not just a retrospective celebration—it is a call to action.  As younger generations become the new carriers of Carnival, the need for intergenerational dialogue, equitable funding, and inclusive policy becomes ever more urgent.  The arts must be acknowledged not only for their aesthetic value but for their capacity to build community, inspire change, and generate knowledge.

Conclusion

Leicester Caribbean Carnival at 40 is more than a milestone—it is a moment of cultural reckoning and reimagining.  Through the lens of film, poetry and publication, Serendipity seeks to celebrate and preserve this vibrant legacy, ensuring that the Carnival’s story is told not only on the streets of Leicester but also in classrooms, galleries, libraries and digital platforms across the world.

As the city continues to evolve, the Carnival remains a vital thread in its cultural fabric—shaped by history, fuelled by creativity, and sustained by community.  In the words of Carol Leeming’s new poem: “Carnival is history in motion, freedom in colour, and the sound of us—loud, alive, and here.”

References

Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso.

Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage/Open University.

Nettleford, R. (2003). Caribbean Cultural Identity: The Case of Jamaica. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers.