Lowri Griffiths breaks down the genuinely free bits of Carnival weekend for anyone whose bank balance currently resembles a cautionary tale
Notting Hill Carnival is back for the August bank holiday and over two million people are apparently about to descend on W11 in feathers and Red Stripe, and I, a person whose current financial situation can only be described as “concerning,” have done the actual maths on how to enjoy this thing without spending a single meaningful pound.
Why This Research Felt Genuinely Urgent This Particular August
Because I am, as established, extremely broke, and also because the actual family day on the Sunday is entirely free to join, which means my usual approach of vaguely hoping money will materialise before a big event can, for once, be replaced with actual confirmed information rather than panic.
What Is Actually Free About This Enormous Two-Million-Person Street Party
The Sunday family day, for a start, plus simply standing on the parade route watching the mas, soca, calypso, steel bands and soundsystems roll past, which nobody can charge you for regardless of how broke or well-dressed you happen to be that particular morning.
Where The Actual Costs Sneak In If You’re Not Careful
Food and drink from the stalls, obviously, plus the very real temptation to buy a considerably more elaborate carnival outfit than you strictly need, a trap I have fallen into every single year despite writing this exact blog post about avoiding it.
My Actual Strategy For Surviving Carnival Weekend On Basically No Money
Eating a proper meal before I leave the house, bringing my own water, and treating the whole event as a free, world-class parade rather than a shopping opportunity, which sounds obvious written down but genuinely required real discipline the first several years I tried it.
Whether This Approach Actually Delivers A Genuinely Good Carnival Experience Despite Having No Money
Completely, yes. The music and the parade are the actual point, and they cost nothing whatsoever to simply stand there and absorb, which is roughly ninety percent of what makes Carnival genuinely brilliant in the first place. For more properly broke London guides, stick with bohiney.com.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
