Notting Hill Carnival provides blueprint for a virtual production
Matthew Phillip, Executive Director of Notting Hill Carnival. Photos courtesy Notting Hill Carnival.
With a virtual Carnival celebration among the options under consideration for 2021, the recently concluded virtual celebration of Notting Hill’s Carnival may provide the blueprint.
Held over the August 29 to 31 bank holiday weekend in the United Kingdom, the virtual affair was three days with mini-documentaries, cook-alongs, interviews with Notting Hill Carnival Pioneers, soca warm-up workouts, Carnival poetry, live DJ sets, pre-recorded performances from artistes in Trinidad, Grenada, Barbados, Jamaica and Nigeria, Calypso and Soca Monarch competitions, pan performances from the UK’s top bands, interviews and a look at the mas bands who make up Notting Hill Carnival.
Filming of the different shows and packages took place over six weeks at the famous Abbey Road Studios, The Royal Albert Hall, Malcolm Ryan Studios, Kennington Studios and Royal Theatre Haymarket.
Apart from the NHC’s website, productions were broadcasted on four YouTube channels—Culture, Parade, Main Stage and Sound Stage—and on Carnival Monday, three channels broadcasted simultaneously, a first for YouTube said Matthew Phillip, Executive Director of the Notting Hill Carnival committee.
Key to pulling off what he described as a virtual celebration of Carnival was the partnerships his committee created with digital service providers like YouTube, Spotify, Facebook and Google Arts and Culture.
“These were conversations we were having prior to 2020, we had long conversations over the past two or three years. The whole world is on fast forward because of the pandemic so even though we were having conversations about a virtual offering alongside our Carnival, it basically became our only option for 2020 because we didn’t have a choice,” he said.
A partnership with Samsung saw a 30-second trailer of NHC shown at Picadilly Square
Before getting the platforms and other sponsors on board, the Notting Hill Carnival committee first had to change the narrative around the festival.
Every year, the overwhelming stories in the mainstream media around the event was the violence that occurred during the festival.
Phillip, who assumed the CEO position in 2018, had a strategy to change that.
He said: “We looked at all the events in the UK and we looked at it in terms of numbers and by far we were the ones with the most numbers, two million people, and there were smaller events with more crime and arrest rates than us. We made sure we were armed with information so when we did interviews we could push back.”
He told Loop News that based on their statistics, media houses did their own research and discovered that Notting Hill Carnival was, in fact, the safest event so more brands were comfortable having their name associated with them this year.
“For a brand this year presented zero risks because we weren’t on the streets,” he said of the added opportunity the pandemic brought.
By Laura Dowrich-Phillips
Loop news – www.Looptt.com
