The Commission heard presentations from the Council's Culture team and three Carnival groups: Tropical Isles, Paracarnival and Urban Touch. The meeting was called to consider the social, cultural and economic impact of Hackney Council's decision to no longer fund Hackney Carnival from the Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) and to explore any opportunities to mitigate this decision. Whilst the Council is unable to fund Hackney Carnival in the future, they have secured £70,000 to be invested in 'Carnival Arts' in the borough. The Commission heard that how this money will be spent is to be co-designed with the Carnival Stakeholder Group and other relevant stakeholders.

The impact of the decision on the Carnival Groups

Councillor Chris Kennedy, the Cabinet Member for Health, Adult Social Care, Voluntary Sector & Culture, said:

We are in, effectively, financial crisis mode.

He explained that the decision was made as a necessary saving in light of the Council's wider financial position, which requires savings of £67 million to be made over the next three years. The most recent Carnival in 2024 was budgeted to cost £1 million and only 6% of the eventual spend of £700,000 went to the Carnival groups.

The presentations from Tropical Isles and Urban Touch highlighted the social value provided by the Carnival groups, particularly in terms of supporting young people and creating a route into the creative industries. The Council's Culture team agreed with this, and Andrew Ellerby, the Culture and Heritage Manager, noted that

Audience data also demonstrates it would most impact Hackney residents from non-white backgrounds.

Paracarnival explained the specific work that they do to support disabled people, saying that

Hackney Carnival is a platform for disability culture and disability art.

They argued that losing the Carnival puts Carnival groups at risk of losing funding due to them being less able to access match funding.

Alternative ways of funding the Carnival

Councillor Kennedy suggested that

Perhaps [the] Hackney Carnival Trust provides some shows, some service, perhaps some carnival management or event management to other organisations in the future and becomes a self-generating, self-funding organisation.

Petra Roberts, the Assistant Director of Culture, Libraries and Heritage, said that the Council will be supporting the groups to seek funding from trusts and foundations, something which the Council cannot do itself. Both the Council and the Carnival Groups acknowledged the difficulties in attracting sponsors, but it was agreed that this will be investigated further. Mr Ellerby said that it may involve

bringing somebody into the team to deliver that on our behalf as well.

The need for a permanent space for the Carnival Groups

There was widespread agreement that a permanent space for the Carnival Groups to rehearse and work from would make a big difference to their work. Councillor Kennedy said that the Council is reviewing its entire estate to see what can be rationalised and that

I hear the cogs turning in their head about how there might be some sort of carnival stroke artistic hub that happens in one of our buildings.

The need for better communication from the Council

Councillor Ogundemuren challenged the way in which the Council communicated the decision to the Carnival Groups, suggesting that it had been confusing. Councillor Kennedy accepted this and said that he would

do a video stating that [...] the council is really struggling financially and we can't put aside the money every year for carnival.

Councillor Ogundemuren suggested that

what we should be saying is that okay the success of Hackney Council has meant that it's grown but as it's grown due to cost pressures we are unable to fund it 100% long term.

The timeline for next steps

The immediate next step for the Council is to arrange a meeting with the Carnival Stakeholder group. A parallel conversation about long-term aspirations, including exploring a trust model, will also need to take place. Councillor Kennedy acknowledged that the Commission will

more than once [...] want to see all of us back again and find out where we are.

He suggested that the Chair should meet with officers to decide when that should happen.