The annual west London carnival is Europe’s biggest street party and is billed by organisers as ‘the greatest community-led event on the planet’.
Police made 169 arrests at the first day of Notting Hill Carnival but the mood has been “overwhelmingly positive and celebratory”, Scotland Yard have said.
As of 7.45pm on Sunday, the arrests had been made for offences including possession of drugs, possession of weapons, assaults and sexual offences, the Metropolitan Police said.
The annual west London carnival is Europe’s biggest street party and billed by organisers as “the greatest community-led event on the planet”.
In a statement on Sunday evening, the Met Police said: “While officers responded to a number of incidents as would be anticipated at an event of this scale, the mood has been overwhelmingly positive and celebratory.”
The force said the majority of arrests had taken place within the event perimeter and officers had responded to two knife assaults, a slashing to the leg and one to the hand, neither of which resulted in life-changing or threatening injuries.
Commander Claire Smart, who is in charge of the policing operation, said: “We have been working closely with Notting Hill Carnival Ltd and other partners for many months ahead of this weekend’s event.
“The organisers have stepped forward significantly across the event, including crowd management, and we have seen the positive progress today.
“While we have seen a significant number of arrests and interventions by officers, the result of that proactive approach is a welcome reduction in the levels of serious violence seen at the event in previous years.
“Nobody involved in the delivery of the event is complacent, however.
“There are still many officers deployed across the footprint to ensure crowds disperse safely.
“We will have officers on duty through the night and tomorrow we will go again to ensure we can continue to tackle the minority who want to come to Carnival to spoil the celebration for the majority.”
Earlier this week, the force said more than 7,000 officers would be deployed to west London over the bank holiday weekend.
The carnival includes parades, live music, street food and sound stages and is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
In 2025, the Met said it made 528 arrests across the two main days of the carnival, including 167 for drug offences, 50 for possession of an offensive weapon, 21 for sexual offences, four for violence with injury and 49 for other violence.
In 2024, there were eight stabbings, including the murder of 32-year-old mother Cher Maximen, with the same number the previous year, and seven including a murder in 2022.
Day two of this year’s event is set to take place on bank holiday Monday.
