The Carnival Project can be one of the main highlights of the Holloway Arts Festival. The main parade takes place in Whittington Park, the festival's free outdoor event. In the run up to the festival, we run a number of workshops in local schools in order to make the costumes and rehearse the music.

In 2009, the Carnival took Lewis Carroll’s classic book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as its theme and featured all the main characters from this magic fairy tale, Alice, the Queen of Hearts, a giant caterpillar, a very grumpy Duchess and many others.

The Carnival procession on 4 July was accompanied by a troupe of Cheshire cats, mad hatters, knaves and a white rabbit, along with a band of playing cards rendering a musical score composed especially for the occasion. For the first time ever in fact, the carnival featured original music composed by children from The Bridge School in collaboration with Drake Music’s composers. The music took as its starting point the score of Alice Through the Looking Glass, a musical play composed by Stephen Daltry (who also accompanied live on piano on the day).

We worked with children from Grafton and Hargrave Park Primary Schools to design and make the costumes for the parade. Groups from each school also worked with their music teachers to perform the music.

The 2009 carnival project took place in collaboration with Cornwallis Youth and Play Project, Grafton Primary School, Hargrave Park Primary School, Islington Arts and Media School, The Bridge School and Drake Music.

The Carnival Project was funded in 2009 by Richard Reeve's Foundation.