Sussex People

Six hundred dancers will wind their way through the streets of Brighton at this year’s Carnival – and you could be among them.

Carnival! Picture by Mel Klein.

This year there's a chance for local people to dance with the professionals.

Masquerade 2000, previous winners of the Notting Hill Carnival, will be taking thirty local volunteers under their wing and those local people will be dancing with them on the day. You can apply for a place on the Carnival’s own website.

Bands are coming from across the country to take part in what organisers hope will be the largest ever Carnival.

All are carnival veterans like Masquerade 2000. Others include the steelpan band Nostalgia, the Festive Road dhol drumming band from Milton Keynes, Bamboula Carnival Arts from Stevenage, MasFusion from the Isle Of Wight and from Bedford, Utopia Mas.

Listen out for reports on BBC Sussex in the run-up to Carnival. We’ll also be there, live, on the day itself.

A wide range of communities from all over Brighton – including Brighton & Hove Volunteers, the Refugee & Asylum Seekers Project, the City Synergy group for visually impaired adults and Brighton School of Samba will be doing the dancing. 

Carnival day itself is the culmination of a great deal of work by local people, with workshops held across the city in the arts of costume making and choreography. The first Brighton Carnival was held in 1922.