{"id":755735,"date":"2026-08-31T16:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/755735\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:06:13","slug":"notting-hill-carnival-live-dancers-djs-and-drummers-on-60th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/755735\/","title":{"rendered":"Notting Hill Carnival live: Dancers, DJs and drummers on 60th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘I smashed it’ – one of Carnival’s first female DJs remembers 1985 eventpublished at 13:24 BST<\/p>\n

13:24 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter<\/p>\n

\"LinettImage source, LINETT KAMALAImage caption, <\/p>\n

Linett Kamala at Carnival in 2019<\/p>\n

“For me, it was natural to just say ‘why can\u2019t a girl DJ?’,” recalls Linett Kamala, who was one of the first female sound system DJs at Notting Hill Carnival, spinning records for the first time there back in 1985, aged 15. <\/p>\n

Frustrated by the lack of representation at Carnival, she approached a friend’s brother who was in his own sound system crew – these are DJs and technicians behind the enormous speaker stacks that blast music. <\/p>\n

Linett spent a year practicing the techniques before her first Carnival gig, she says.<\/p>\n

“I smashed it, I was proper happy… I grew in confidence in that exact moment.” <\/p>\n

Though there’s been progress for female selectors, there’s “lots more to do” in getting them the recognition they deserve, says Kamala, who is building up a network of female DJs from around the world.<\/p>\n

She is also on the Carnival’s board, and can be found this year in a brand new “chill spot” for learning more about Carnival culture. Kamala’s set it up on St Stephens Gardens – called the “LIN KAM ART chill spot”, named after the foundation she runs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘I smashed it’ – one of Carnival’s first female DJs remembers 1985 eventpublished at 13:24 BST 13:24 BST…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-755735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}