Daily Times

One of the world’s largest street festivals, the Notting Hill Carnival in west London, has been cancelled for the second year running because of the coronavirus pandemic, organisers said on Friday.

The three-day celebration of British-Caribbean culture traces its roots back the 1950s and had been due to take place again in late August after being shelved last year.

But Notting Hill Carnival Ltd said this year’s event “will not be on the streets due to the ongoing uncertainty and risk Covid-19 poses”.

“This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make,” it added in a statement.

“Everyone involved in the event desperately wants a return to the road where Carnival belongs but safety has to come first and with the latest cautious announcement on the government’s ‘roadmap’, this is the only way to ensure that.” The company said it was looking to hosting alternative events. Last year, performances of the carnival’s trademark feathered dancers, steel bands and music switched online.

Britain has been badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and has registered some 128,000 deaths from Covid 19 since the outbreak began.

A countrywide mass vaccination programme has seen more than 70 million people received jabs, including 30 million with two doses.

But the government earlier this week delayed a planned lifting of all coronavirus restrictions because of surging cases of the Delta variant first identified in India, which is again putting pressure on hospital services.

A total of 11,007 new cases were registered on Thursday – the first time the figure has gone above 10,000 since last February when the country was in full lockdown.