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Notting Hill Carnival offers vital boost for drinks brands
Notting Hill Carnival has been bringing communities together and generating spending for 58 years, but are drinks brands seeing its full potential? Eloise Feilden finds out.
In early August a study commissioned by The Voice revealed that Notting Hill Carnival generates £396 million for London’s economy.
The Voice commissioned JN Bank economist James Williams to research the economic benefits of Notting Hill Carnival.
Williams’ research found that the total direct or net economic impact of the Notting Hill Carnival is over £396 million a year with significant spending on accommodation, food, shopping, entertainment, and travel contributing to that total.
Carnival celebrations support the equivalent of 3,000 full-time jobs and attracts approximately 160,000 international tourists annually, according to his results.
Food and beverage spending is an essential part of this story. Williams found that domestic visitors spend an estimated £58.5 million on food and drinks alone, while international visitors add £20.3m.
UK-based Caribbean rum brand Duppy Share has been activating at Notting Hill Carnival for seven years.
CEO Jack Orr-Ewing told db: “It’s the only festival we keep coming back to.”
“Run by the community, for the community, it’s a cultural phenomenon that we are delighted to be part of,” he said.
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Duppy Share served its largest number of drinks ever at this year’s event, which took place over the weekend. The brand sold more than 2,000 bottles of rum and 4,000 canned cocktails over four days, Orr-Ewing said.
The brand saw positive sales over the Bank Holiday Weekend, but Orr-Ewing noted that the 2024 event was “noticeable for the absence of national brands and corporates wanting to participate”.
The event, which has taken place over the August Bank Holiday weekend in the same area of Kensington since 1966, is a celebration of Caribbean culture in Britain. In 2006, the UK public voted it onto a list of icons of England, highlighting its continued cultural importance in the country. But the celebration began as a counter to the problematic state of race relations in the 1960s and widespread racial attacks.
Even today, Notting Hill Carnival, one of the world’s largest street festivals, struggles against negative backlash.
Williams’ research was commissioned by The Voice to offer a different perspective to what it called the “often negative mainstream media coverage” which often surrounds the event.
Williams said: “It’s really important that the government promote the economic benefits of this annual event and use it as a benchmark to recognise the economic impact diverse communities bring to wider society, but also the soft global power it gives London, and the UK by extension.”
The Duppy Share CEO urged drinks brands to invest in the celebration, both as a way to give back to the community and because of its potential in terms of visibility and sales.
“It’s amazing to see Red Bull back in Hornimans and supporting so many bars and floats,” he said, “but the investment and funding for the artists and DJs that work all year to put on the show is hugely lacking, meaning most of the sound systems and Mas Bands self-funding, paying out of their own pocket to put on a festival that is free for anyone to come and experience – let’s hope the success of this year’s Carnival leads to more brands choosing to invest Europe’s largest street festival once again.”
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