Leicester Carnival

I was working with Hayley at a wedding in the Mercure Grand Hotel on Granby Street in Leicester today.

We'd been hired to cover the first three hours from 12 pm, then I stayed on for one hour in the evening to shoot the cake cutting and the first dance.

Which meant that I had free time after 3pm.

By great, glorious chance, the Leicester Carnival processed down Granby Street from 3.30pm, and I had a prime opportunity to take photos.

Nothing like as crowded as I imagine the Notting Hill Carnival in London to be, but equally joyous, vibrant and energetic.

The carnival is largely planned and populated by Leicester's Caribbean Community, but Leicester is a multi cultural and multi ethnic city, so Caribbean has been dropped from the title. The street parade starts from Victoria Park up the London Road south of the City Centre, then does a circle in the centre and returns to the park for celebrations lasting into the evening.

For more photos.

The day was marred by a stabbing at one of the takeaways opposite the hotel at 8.40 in the evening.

Granby Street was closed to restrict movement and for police to interview witnesses. It remains closed on Sunday morning. The victim is in a critical condition in hospital.

I was unable to leave the hotel as the police were preventing anyone from going on to the street. My taxi was held up in a queue of traffic.

Eventually, my son George was able to pick me up from outside the cathedral, to where I walked from the back entrance of the hotel on to Belvoir Street, which was not closed. Got home around 10.30 pm.

I also enjoyed an excellent fish curry, Kerala style, at Kayal.