Leeds Carnival 2013
On Sunday I witnessed multi culturalism, cohesion and community integration on a scale I’ve never seen in Leeds, it was on a bank holiday weekend where the sun had kept away for most of us, luckily it only rained on the Leeds Festival, but even old Mr Sunshine couldn’t resist coming out to enjoy the colourful delights of the city’s annual Leeds West Indian Carnival. It looked like literally thousands of people had flocked to the streets around Potternewton Park to show their solidarity and community harmony on this sunny Carnival day, which also had some of the most amazing sizzling Caribbean food on offer, with all the carnival chef’s seemingly having a friendly competition to see who could cook the best Jerk Chicken in their BBQ Drum smokers…I’ve got to say the smell from them was off the scale!!
While we enjoyed these delights, the parade wound its way through the inner city streets of Leeds, then finally making their way back to Potternewton Park where we waited for their return, and even though they had walked and danced for over 3 hours through Chapeltown, Harehills and circling the city centre in all their glorious menagerie of hand-made ‘heavy’ costumes in this late summer heat, there was still a smile on every face, which I hope you can see in the photography below that I captured on this wonderful day in Leeds.
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