This year’s Notting Hill Carnival looks set to dance to a Brazilian beat, thanks to Olympic links between London and Rio, which will stage the next Games.
While the carnival has celebrated Afro-Caribbean communities since its birth in 1964, dashes of other cultures are slowly being added to the spicy mix.
“This year’s Notting Hill, following the handover to Rio for the 2016 Oympiad, looks like it could be a landmark year for Brazilian presence,” Metro revealed.
Give it some! A dancer at last year's carnival
Dance troupe Paraiso – which prides itself for bringing “real Rio samba” to London, will be performing, having taken part in the Olympics closing ceremony flag handover.
Last year, the London School of Sambaannounced it’s theme for this year’s festivities would be “Passando a Chama” (Passing the Flame).
An oddly prescient statement on its website reads: “Beginning with the passion ignited by Samba, carnival is about finding others within whom a flame is also burning and celebrating this with our voices, minds, hearts and bodies.”
It sounds like good news to us, because let's face it, the Brazilians certainly know how to party.