On Sunday 14th August, Nottingham held its annual Caribbean Carnival. Attracting thousands of revellers and spectators.

This year's carnival seems to have had a difficult genesis. Like so many other events it has been hit by the economic crisis and the cuts and takes place on only one day, as opposed to the two of recent years. The disturbances which reached the city the previous week caused many to wonder if the event would go ahead. Fortunately, sense won out over paranoia.

As in previous years, the highlight of the event was a parade from the city centre to the Forest Rec. This year, this took a different route to previous years. Forming up on Castle Gate revellers made their way onto Albert Street, up Wheeler Gate to the Market Square, around the "Nottingham Riviera" up past Speaker's Corner to Parliament Street. From here it turned onto Milton Street, then onto Shakespeare Street and then left onto Dryden Street. From here, like Pride a few weeks back it made its way through various backstreets, before emerging from Addison Street onto Forest Road and then entering the Forest Rec from one of the gates along the top.

The parade included various dancers, some of them in incredible costumes. There were also borrowed council vans (usually used for collecting rubbish) with huge soundystems mounted on them cranking out tunes. This year, the parade included contingents from the Derby and Leicester carnivals which I don't recall from previous years. The march was also graced with the presence of the Lord Mayor and his lady.

Once they reached the rec, the various participating groups queued to perform on the main stage. Those at the back must have waited for well over an hour, bear in mind that this is on top of the time they have spent walking the route. All in all, an impressive feat of stamina.

Despite the events of the previous week, the policing of the event was relatively low key, particularly on the parade. There were quite a few police and PCSOs at the Forest Rec, but probably not anymore than in previous years. As before there were also body scanners and bag checks on people entering the site itself, which caused considerable queues, although people seemed fairly patient. The event was also overseen by both of the council's CCTV vans (at £130,000 a piece it's surprising you don't see both of them more often as a justification for the expense). Whether because or despite of all this, there doesn't appear to have been any trouble (although Notts Police report two arrests for "minor offences").