Carnival
2022 – Sonhar Não Custa Nada
London School of Samba at Notting Hill Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival 2022
Sonhar Não Custa Nada - Dreams Cost Nothing
With Covid derailing Carnival for two years and no Arts Council funding for 2022, the school had to be creative and resourceful for Carnival to proceed. The London School of Samba focused on a sustainable carnival by recycling from past years and dreaming big with a small budget!
Working with Limited Resources
Choosing a classic samba Enredo from the London School of Samba Godmother School, Mocidade “Sonhar Não Custa Nada”. The song title translates to “Dreams cost nothing”, this title gave us the idea of putting on a big show with limited resources.
It was the first time the London School of Samba paraded since 2019 – the subsequent years of 2020 and 2021
being cancelled due to the pandemic. Announcement that the 2022 carnival would go ahead arrived late in April and thus presented many challenges for all participating groups in the Notting Hill Carnival (NHC).
Creative Improvisation
Our application for ACE funding was unsuccessful, so a self-funded carnival was the only option. The School raised money from registration fees from participants and donations from supporters of the school. To complement the parade, the school reused as many of the costumes that were stored from our the costume store in Brixton.
Carnival Theme
A key person in the 2022 theme concept was Gino Marchione, following detailed discussions, we decided to propose “Dreams Cost Nothing” (Sonhar Não Custa Nada) as the theme for our 2022Carnival parade. We thought this was appropriate for the following:
- Within the theme title it encapsulated what this parade was about: The school had no money, and yet with the determination of its carnival team, members and supporters outside the school, it would show that it was possible to put on the parade with very few resources.
- This theme idea came from our Madrinha, Mocidade and thus we would suggest that we use their samba de enredo from that theme that they paraded with in the 1992 Carnival in Rio
All costumes recycled and reused
This was the first great achievement this year: we didn’t make a single costume, we reused as many costumes as we could to put on the largest parade the school has seen for years: around 80 drummers and 110 dancers, 190 costumed performers.
Security and stewards
One of the major concerns from previous parades was the security of our dancers at this year’s carnival. We therefore decided to pull out the stops and recruit as many stewards as possible to ensure the security of the parade.
In the end, we had around 44 stewards, the largest turnout the school has seen for years, plus I hired two paid security men to join the parade from KD Security in Brixton – a lead we thank Jordan for finding.
Much of the recruitment of stewards was done by Kay Bruno and our Mestre Sala, Marcelo. They did a huge amount of work that ensured we had very large turnout of stewards. We also had two police officers with us for the parade
Keys to Success
- Mass participation of members and overseas visitors – key to the financial success of Carnival, as this resulted in 180 performers
- Passion & enthusiasm of the carnival team – key to ensuring that the event was fun, well planned and delivered early many of the key objectives
- A greatly expanded team of volunteers. Carnival is too big an event to put on a small team, its needs lots of people doing a little work, rather than a few people doing all the work
- Willingness to explore ideas of participation not tried before – for example, a much simplified Ala structure and amongst other things, the greatly expanded Passista ala
2022 NHC Results
We got a superb result in Carnival – scoring 284 points, just two points behind Paraiso and winning £250 in prize money. There were 72 Mas Bands and 7 samba bands, when the scores were looked at overall, the winner was the Mas Band Riddim (1st) Batala (winners of the samba category, 2nd), Mahogany (3rd), Paraiso (4th) and London School of Samba and Ebony Mas (5th). There were no Brazilian judges. The judging was arranged by CAMF who recruited Mas judges to score the bands. A member of our Vehla Guarda was on the judging stand this year (Sharon Bannister) and she reported that the London School of Samba were the best Brazilian band.
We showed a new way of putting carnival on, or rather rediscovered how it must been done when we first started in 1984. Because of this, this carnival was the most important one in many years, one in which we can pass down to the next generation of carnivalists in the school the ways that it can done – without a grant, without lots of money but by a totally dedicated team of passionate and enthusiastic volunteers, really committed to making it happen.
We discovered that there are a lot of people both inside and outside of the school – as shown by support received, by those who really love our school, those who really want it to succeed and who are prepared to help it get to Carnival in such difficult financial times.
It was a peoples carnival, how it must have been not just in the early days of the London School of Samba, but in the early days of samba in Brazil. We returned carnival to its roots and found a way of putting in on just like people not just in Brazil, but in Trinidad, Cuba, many other countries must have done. That’s why – again – this carnival was so important. All carnivals carry an education, a learning process, this one much more than others I have done.
For that, we thank everyone who made it possible . . . As we found Dreams really do Cost Nothing
Sonhar Não Custa Nada! by Paulinho Mocidade
By Paulinho Mocidade
Portuguese
Sonhar não custa nada
O meu sonho é tão real
Mergulhei nessa magia
Era tudo que eu queria
Para ese carnaval
Deixe a sua mente vagar
Não custa nada sonhar
Viajar nos braços do infinito
Onde tudo é mais bonito
Nesse mundo de ilusão
Transformar o sonho em realidade
E sonhar com a mocidade
E sonhar com o pé no chão
Estrela de luz
Que me conduz
Estrela que me faz sonhar
Amor, sonhe com os anjos (não se paga)
Não se paga pra sonhar
Eu sou a noite mais bela
Que encanta o teu sonho
Te alucina por te amar (amar, amar)
Vem nas estrelas do céu
Vem na lua de mel
Vem me querer
Delírio sensual
Arco-íris de prazer
Amor, eu vou te anoitecer
Eu vejo a lua no céu
A mocidade a sorrir
De verde-e-branco na sapucaí
English
Dream does not cost a thing
My dream is so real
I immersed myself in this magic
It was everything I wanted
For this carnival
Let your mind wander
It costs nothing to dream
Travel in the arms of infinity
Where everything is more beautiful
In this world of illusion
Turn the dream into reality
And dream of youth
And dream with your feet on the ground
star of light
That leads me
Star that makes me dream
Love, dream about angels (you don’t pay)
You don’t pay to dream
I am the most beautiful night
That enchants your dream
It hallucinates you to love you (love, love)
Come in the stars of the sky
Come on honeymoon
Come want me
Sensual delirium
Rainbow of pleasure
Baby, I’ll darken you
I see the moon in the sky
The youth smiling
In green and white in sapucaí
Carnival Director
Assistant Carnival Director & Barracao Manager
Carnival Royal Family
Bateria Directors
Tristan Daws
Phil Niklowitz
Kitty Brown
Fee Turuka
Erik Wennerberg
Stacey Fawcett
Ala dos Compositories
Dance Leads / Teachers
Cat Hill
Davina Samba
Vehla Guarda (old guard)
Costume Manager
Accommodation, Registration & Treasurers
Stacey Fawcett took care of all the bateria registrations and Nuala Hamilton was the Carnival Treasurer. Joan Eggleston was instrumental on the 2022 Carnival Committee.
