Presentation on the business of Notting Hill Carnival Bands

1. The Entrepreneurial
Legacy of the
Notting Hill
Masquerade Bands
Nicole Ferdinand, PhD. Candidate, CMCI,
King’s College London

2. Discourse on the Entrepreneurial
Legacy of the Notting Hill Carnival
[it is] “particularly galling to Trinidadians”that the popularity of carnivals [like
Notting Hill] “has not translated into anything of tangible value for
Trinidadians in Trinidad save for the handful of designers or bandleaders who
have been able to ply their trade overseas.” (Green and Scher, 2007:22)
“We have so many Carnivals happening all over the
world but what do we really get out of them?”
(First Up, 2012)

3. Literature Review
Festival Cultural Human Int’l
Tourism Studies Geography Business
• Mainly • Dominated by • Focused on • Dominated by
focused on politically or capturing the study
attracting sociologically ‘cultural manufactured
customers focused landscapes’ goods , few
• Focus on research • Highlight the studies on
specific, aims linkages experience
single case • Investigate between goods of any
studies the cultural festivals in kind
• “over- production Diaspora • Actor
emphasis on process in an communities networks,
consumer- indirect and their resource
behaviour manner (e.g. countries of management
theory and by examining origin • Configuration
methods” texts or • Paths
(Getz, 2010: media
20) reports)

4. How do festivals become
international?
Q1. How are festivals adapted and
spread in the process of
internationalization?
Q2. What international business
activities do festival organisations
participate in?
Q3. What are the benefits for the
country of origin of festival
internationalization?
Research Questions

5. Methodology
Nested or embedded case study
Notting Hill Carnival can be described as a single unit of analysis and its four
cultural arenas as nested or embedded units within it (Swanborn, 2010).

6. •9 interviews (October
Case study of 2011- January 2012)
Masquerade Bands •9 current CMAF
members
•2 former NHMBA
executive members
•1 current CMAF
executive member
•Archival research which
includes:
•Media reports and
other reports, internal
memos and
organization materials
Initial Findings & Analysis

7. Actor Network Theory:
Framing, focal actor,
Festival OPP, enrollment of
Development
actors, outcomes
Initial Findings & Analysis

8. “Our artists are not Piccassoes …. They are not
reviewed in the Times or the Guardian…. They
are nevertheless artists in their own right….
Our art is valid and as important as any other.”
(Cohen, 1978 cited in Cohen, 1993: 46)

9. Problem Focal Obligatory Actors Outcomes
Framing Actor Passage Enrolled
Point
Trinidadian /Black Carnival Fit with TT Trinidadians, • ‘Trinidadianizing
Cultural Development culture and Trinidadian festival ‘of the festival
Celebration Committee concerns of organizers • Funding from Arts
(1970s) Black Britain Masquerade makers Council
• Sound Systems. • Festival grows to
Arts Council 100,000

10. “The two old committees virtually lost their
control over the bands and, in view of their
past bickering and of their failure to submit
publicly accurate accounts they became
discredited.” (Cohen, 1993: 47)

11. Problem Focal Obligatory Actors Outcomes
Framing Actor Passage Enrolled
Point
Trinidadian /Black Carnival Fit with TT Trinidadians, •‘Trinidadianizing
Cultural Development culture and Trinidadian festival ‘of the festival
Celebration Committee1 concerns of organizers, •Funding from Arts
(1970s) Black Britain masquerade makers Council
Sound Systems. Arts •Festival grows to
Council 100,000
UK Arts Festival Arts council Meet UK masquerade • Dual carnival
(early 1980s) requirements of bands organizations
arts council forced to become
one to meet Arts
Council
requirements

12. “At least when we had Claire we had money […]
back in [those] days we use to win prizes and
we used to make at least 2000 pounds from
being on the road.”
- Interviewee 3

13. Problem Focal Obligatory Actors Outcomes
Framing Actor Passage Enrolled
Point
Trinidadian /Black Carnival Fit with TT Trinidadians, • ‘Trinidadianizing
Cultural Development culture and Trinidadian festival ‘of the festival
Celebration Committee1 concerns of organizers, •Funding from Arts
(1970s) Black Britain masquerade makers Council
Sound Systems. Arts •Festival grows to
Council 100,000
UK Arts Festival Arts council Meet UK masquerade • Carnival
(early 1980s) requirements of bands organizations
arts council forced to merge to
meet accountability
requirements
Carnival Means Carnival Arts Commercial Masquerade makers • Festival grows to
Business Committee focus of non-Caribbean 1M.
(mid-late 1980s) origins (especially • Arts education
Brazilian) becomes key to
masquerade
bands.
Sponsorship CEC/ Notting Commercial Big business (Virgin, •Financial surplus,
Opportunity Hill focus BT and Coca-Cola) •Festival grows to
(1990s) Carnival 2M.
Trust

14. “… during the Golden Jubilee year […] people
[masquerade band leaders] starting seeing the
benefits of performing coming […] and what
did they do? They ganged up and go rid of
Claire Holder […] and they’ve never recovered,
so sponsors and funding and all of those
various things, they killed it.”
- Interviewee 5

15. Problem Focal Obligatory Actors Outcomes
Framing Actor Passage Enrolled
Point
Trinidadian /Black Carnival Fit with TT Trinidadians, • ‘Trinidadianizing
Cultural Development culture and Trinidadian festival ‘of the festival
Celebration Committee1 concerns of organizers, Funding from Arts
(1970s) Black Britain masquerade makers Council. Festival
Sound Systems. Arts grows to 100,000
Council
UK Arts Festival Arts council Meet UK masquerade • Carnival
(early 1980s) requirements of bands organizations
arts council forced to merge to
meet accountability
requirements
Carnival Means Carnival Arts Commercial Masquerade makers • Festival grows to
Business Committee focus of non-Caribbean 1M.
(mid-late 1980s) origins (especially • Arts education
Brazilian) becomes key to
masquerade
bands.
Sponsorship CEC/ Notting Commercial Big business (Virgin, •Financial surplus,
Opportunity Hill focus BT and Coca-Cola) •Festival grows to
(1990s) Carnival 2M.
Trust
Turmoil, ? Accountability Other festival •Loss of
Transition organizations, commercial
(00s –present) smaller sponsors support,
•Reduced Arts
Council funding

16. Actor Network Theory:
Festival Framing, focal actor,
Development OPP, enrollment of
actors, outcomes
Festival
International-
ization
Models of
Internationalization:
Stage, Resource,
Network
Initial Findings & Analysis

17. “I don’t think there would be any carnivals in
London without Notting Hill Carnival. The
focus of most bands in London is Notting Hill,
but they would do Thames Festival or
Hackney or this or that but basically it you
take away Notting Hill it won’t work anymore.”
- Interviewee 4

18. UK Masquerade
Band Carnival
Circuit
• Calo Festival
• One Hackney Festival
• The Mayor’s Thames Festival
• Bridgwater Guy Fawkes
Carnival 0
• Caribbean Carnival of Manchester
Huddersfield Leeds
• Coventry Caribbean Festival
Liverpool
Manchester
Manchester
• Derby Caribbean Carnival Derby
• Huddersfield Carnival *Coventry
Coventry
• Liverpool International Street Carnival
Chesam Luton
• Luton International Festival
*London
• Schools of Chesham Carnival *Bridgewater Bristol
• St. Paul’s Carnival Bristol
• The Leeds West Indian Carnival

19. From Notting Hill to the World
the Netherlands
*Germany
*Taiwan
Cayman
Islands
Trinidad
*Brazil Seychelles
Port-of-Spain, Grand Cayman, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador,
Rotterdam, Berlin, Dortmund, Hamburg, Seychelles
&Tamsui

20. Actor Network Theory:
Festival Framing, focal actor,
Development OPP, enrollment of
actors, outcomes
Festival
International-
ization
Configuration of
Models of Activities
Internationalization:
Stage, Resource,
Network Internationalization:
Modes & Directions
Initial Findings & Analysis

21. “I came here and I worked in London Notting Hill Carnival as a
designer of a group for four years. I spent sometimes 4-6months
working for summer.”
-Interviewee MB3
“All the costumes are made in Brazil. All
the drums are made in Brazil. Most of
the T-shirts are printed in Brazil.”
-Interviewee MB2
“...in India I run a skill development project where I help people in a
village who do embroidery ...”
- Interviewee MB3
“This year we are going to Germany for a stage performance. We’ve
also done workshops in Germany ...”
- Interviewee MB6

22. Inward Internationalization
Imports
• Masquerade design
• Semi-finished and finished
costumes
• Musicians’ and vocalists’ services
• Musical instruments
• Managerial expertise

23. Outward Internationalization
Exports
• Masquerade design
• Finished costumes
• Production expertise
• Managerial expertise
• Festival appearances
• Carnival consultancy

24. Discussion
• Notting Hill Carnival is a festival which is served by a complex,
interlinked web of actor networks and resource interactions which
enables multiple modes and directions of international business activity
• Its integration of international production and consumption activities has
more in common with previous work on cultural clusters (Mommaas
2004) and interactive networks, or cultural production systems (Pratt
2008) rather than most festival tourism research which focuses on
consumer behaviour with a fixed festival environment
• The Notting Hill Carnival’s cultural entrepreneurs rather than
incompetent (Burr 2006) have been skillful actors in their negotiations
with state bodies and sponsors and have been innovative with their use
of resources
• Rather than being thieves of the Trinidadian culture (Green 2007) these
cultural entrepreneurs have provided Trinidadian and Brazilian artists
and designers with employment and export opportunities

25. Conclusions
• Mapping of the Notting Hill Carnival as an experience
production system (Ferdinand and Williams, 2012) is
urgently needed to attract additional resources and new
actors to contribute to the carnival (e.g. multi-national firms,
television networks, other Caribbean Carnival organizations)
• Festivals like the Notting Hill Carnival present a unique
opportunity for cultural entrepreneurs to learn a complex
range of business skills, with minimal investment
• Festival organizations need to be wary of outsiders (e.g.
funding agencies and sponsors) framing their festivals in
ways which do not benefit the festival community

26. Thank You For Listening
E-mail: Nicole.Ferdinand@kcl.ac.uk
Nicole Ferdinand @evntmgt
http://facebook.com/Ms.NicoleFerdinand