Future of Hackney Carnival under threat as Town Hall withdraws funding

Hackney Carnival, 2020

The Town Hall has withdrawn Hackney Carnival funding “for the foreseeable future”, to finance day-to-day spending, as it attempts to tackle its eye-watering budget deficit.

Last night the council met to discuss next steps with local stakeholders after recently announcing that the previously earmarked £500,000 for the biennial event had been slashed.

The borough’s culture chief, Cllr Chris Kennedy, said the decision was unavoidable if the council is to “ensure frontline services and the needs of Hackney’s most vulnerable residents are put first”.

“We know how much carnival means to so many people in Hackney. However, as a fully council-funded event, we sadly cannot commit the significant investment that it requires in our budget for future years at a time when vital services are severely stretched.”

Dubbed the ‘last leg of Notting Hill’, the parade has taken place in the borough in some shape or form since the 1970s, bringing together a variety of community groups to celebrate their colourful culture and heritage.

The council has previously scaled back the event due to budget constraints, deciding in 2023 that the event would be held two years instead of annually.

Now, there are grave doubts as to whether the event will take place in 2026 at all.

In the past carnival funding has come from neighbourhood community interest levy (NCIL) revenue, but this ring-fenced pot has now been repurposed into the local authority’s day-to-day spending budget.

The council says the growth of the event has made it harder to finance, with its budget having grown by close to 75 per cent between 2018 and 2024 – two thirds of which are comprised of infrastructure costs.

When challenged by councillors on the “confusing” messaging around the decision to discontinue NCIL funding, Cllr Kennedy said: “Put bluntly, we can’t put aside the money every year for Carnival.”

“But [saying it like that] that takes away all the hope and the enterprise that we want to keep.”

However, he maintained it was the Town Hall’s aim “to help all our carnival groups as far as possible to have a carnival in some fashion in the future”, including by securing £70,000 from NCIL for similar arts activities in the borough over 2025/26.

The news has been sobering for the various arts groups involved in the parade, such as Tropical Isles, Pantonic and Para Carnival.

They argue that discontinued funding risks “far-reaching consequences for multiple sectors, local businesses and the public”, pointing to the Town Hall’s own estimated £3.24 million that last year’s event brought in gross value to the borough.

While the parade’s budget had swelled to £1 million by 2024, Para Carnival’s Bettina Fernandez said the actual spend was £700,000 but “outrageously” only 6 per cent went to carnival groups that year.

Tropical Isles’s Marva Antoine warned the decision would be felt by future generations “if we do not unite now and agree to an alternative cultural programme that continues to celebrate Hackney’s diverse communities”.

She emphasised the risks that groups like hers would fail to secure match funding if they can no longer claim involvement in Hackney Carnival when applying for grants.

These stakeholder groups have floated the option for the council to set up a trust model for the parade, similar to those used by Notting Hill and Hackney Empire, and to provide arts organisations with a cultural space for training, rehearsals and workshops.

“This is about more than just money. With ongoing cuts to youth services, young people already have too few safe spaces in Hackney,” Ms Antoine said.

“Carnival provides that space. Tropical Isles has helped over 1,000 individuals build careers in the creative industries, and in 2024, [we] engaged more than 2,700 children through our Hackney Museum partnership.”

Cllr Kennedy agreed that an arms-length body like a trust would be able to “tap into funds we can’t access as a council because we’re already a public funded body”.

He pointed to the use of this approach used to deliver the ‘Warm Shores’ Windrush sculptures, erected in the Town Hall square in 2022.

The Town Hall says it is reviewing ways to facilitate the event in the future, such as through advertising revenue or third-party sponsorship, but stakeholders have urged the council to find a more “structured approach” to attract corporate sponsors.

The Town Hall is also seeking “productive and collaborative ways to mitigate these impacts within the realms of available financial and other capacities, and it will do this with the correct voices included in the discussion”.

“Despite the stark economic reality, we want to preserve hope and joy,” said Cllr Kennedy.

“In a way, this – the place we’re in now – is the beginning of the future of Hackney Carnival.

“There is adaptability and ingenuity built into [it]. “We’ll come up with something.”