‘It’s time to take Carnival back to basics’

Culture means different things to different people. In terms of music we cannot deny that the sound system culture of Jamaica is now embedded from foundation level within the popular and underground music scene in Bristol.

But with a near 500-year ‘relationship’ between Bristol and Jamaica, one has to ask the question as to what if anything Bristol has really given back to the island in the sun that continues to give us so much. 

For me, the Capital of Culture bid will be fit for purpose if we can go beyond ourselves and twin in meaningful and positive ways with our ‘transatlantic cousins’.

This could perhaps best be achieved through the St Paul’s Afrikan Caribbean Carnival which in my view has been a multicultural community cohesion beacon for Bristol for decades whilst also spearheading Bristol’s ‘cool city’ status. 

The forthcoming Jamaican Pulse exhibition at the RWA is a step in the right direction and will showcase a number of a Jamaican artists and artworks throughout the summer for the first exhibition of its kind in the UK.

Carnival itself in its most recent form may have had its day, and maybe its time to go back to basics in order to go forward in a better direction where respect for each other and our environment, as well as world class arts, music and community participation are at the core of the event.

Criticised and pushed out of the previous Capital of Culture bid for being “a city divided” by the M32 coupled with a lack of acknowledgement for Bristol’s hand in the transatlantic slave trade, I believe the least we would need to do in the lead-up to the new bid is to symbolically rename the Colston Hall.

We could also find more opportunities to close major roads both for leisure and environmental reasons, as done rather brilliantly by Portway Sunday Park.

As well as contributing to a community event, my agenda is to keep a keen eye on how traffic diversions play out with a desire to take a Carnival procession down a section of the M32 for Carnival’s 50th anniversary in 2018.

If that ambition is realised and if we can reach out citywide to schools and community groups to be part of that, then surely the bid for the title will be ours.

And more importantly under the mayoral leadership of a person of working class and dual heritage, we might just move forward as a city and be able to finally draw a line under the past.

Materialism and capitalism can often be the order of the day but Bristol with its slant towards the alternative I’m sure will find other ways of working and living adding to the collective ‘Bristol culture’ where a person may not be judged by the shirt on their back (unless it’s a mass-produced slave labour commodity) but rather how they treat each other and their surroundings.

We all have our role to play not only in the success of this bid but as caretakers of our environments.

Cleo Lake is the former chair of St Paul’s Carnival and the current carnival commissioner tasked with supporting the revival and sustainability of Carnival. She is also deputy leader of the Green Party group of councillors in Bristol. www.cleolakecreativity.wordpress.com