The Notting Hill Carnival is one of London, and Europe’s, premiere street festivals. This is an annual celebration of Caribbean culture, but anyone who wants to enjoy carnival all year can get a virtual taste with the best carnival slots online. 

Unpack the Notting Hill Carnival and unbelievable carnival-themed online slots in the UK that you can play online.

What is the Notting Hill Carnival?

The Notting Hill Carnival is an amazing celebration of Caribbean culture in London. This epic street festival was first held in 1966 and has become one of the most popular street events across the whole of Europe. 

However, its roots go back much further, with this cultural event originating in the days of the slave trade. After being freed from slavery, thousands of people of Caribbean heritage came together to celebrate their culture. 

Unfortunately, not everyone in Britain was so welcoming. Racism reared its ugly head between 1958 and 1959, leading to the death of Antiguan-born carpenter and aspiring lawyer Kelso Cochrane. In their article on the history of the event, the Notting Hill Carnival website shares the thoughts of late political activist and broadcaster Darcus Howe. He believed that the horrible murder was the event that led to the creation of the Notting Hill Carnival:

“If there weren’t race riots in Notting Hill, I don’t believe that we would have had the Notting Hill Carnival. If it wasn’t for the murder of Kelso Cochrane, Carnival wouldn’t have happened.”

The article further supports this idea by describing how community activist Rhaune Laslett noticed that, despite so many immigrants living together, including West Indians, Africans, and Irish people, they rarely got together. This led to a small community fair that would eventually grow to become the Notting Hill Carnival.

Today, thousands of performers gather to stage a parade with the five key elements of any carnival: mas (masquerade), calypso (a Caribbean style of music), soca (a subgenre of calypso music), sound systems (speakers and other devices that are put in a location to play bombastic music) and steel pan (a music group that primarily plays steel pans). 

With all of these elements in place, Notting Hill in West London transforms into a beautiful bash with costumes, dancers, drinks, food, floats, music and more than one million people from all over Europe gathering to join the party!

The two best carnival-themed slots to play

If all the discussion about the Notting Hill Carnival has gotten you excited, you can check out these carnival-themed slots any time of the year!

Carnival Queen

Get ready to party with the Carnival Queen, an online slot by Thunderkick that takes you to the streets of Carnival. Join the Carnival Queen with six cascading reels, 4,096 ways to win, and an RTP of 96.1%. The medium volatility means players can expect a mix of small and large wins when luck is in their favour.  

Speaking of luck, if you manage to land three or more scatter symbols after you spin the reels, you’ll activate the bonus game. The bonus game has several additional features that add an extra layer of excitement to the game. Once the bonus game is triggered, you can earn extra free spins when you land two or more scatter symbols, grow the game’s multiplier with consecutive wins or wild explosions, and wilds that eliminate unnecessary symbols if you don’t land a win, giving you another chance to take home a prize.

Carnival Queen’s graphics are cartoonish but with undeniable style. Masked men and women, standard slot symbols, and, of course, the Carnival Queen bonus symbol all slide down the reels to reveal if you’ve got a winning combination. The music offers a foot-tapping jazzy beat for you to enjoy, and smooth sound effects let the player know when they’ve landed a win.

Rio Fever

Is it getting hot in here, or is it just Rio Fever? This online slot from Wizard Games takes you to the city of Rio de Janeiro for Carnival! It has 40 paylines and an RTP between 94.48% and 96.13%, and a medium volatility which means a mix of small and large wins.

The excitement ramps up with the Rio Fever Bonus Wheel bonus feature. Landing three or more bonus symbols will trigger this exciting game that provides players with bonus multipliers, as well as the Samba Parade and Wild Ginga mini-games. The Samba Parade offers you seven free spins. Each time you spin, a sticky wild will appear, only disappearing from the reels again after the Samba Parade is over. The Wild Gina mini-game will reward you with up to five reels of wilds during each spin.

The game treats players to a visual feast with beautiful dancers as well as other items you’d expect to find at a carnival, including maracas, drums, masks and more. Golden wild symbols appear to let you know that a wealth of wins could be on its way. And, of course, there’s the colourful bonus symbol, a wheel of fortune that might change your fortune. The music is a simple but catchy Latin drum beat, with attention-grabbing sound effects to let you know when you’ve gotten lucky.

Try all of these exciting carnival slots and more at The Phone Casino

If you’re ready to have some fun and play online slots and casino games in the UK, good times await at The Phone Casino. Our online casino not only offers some of the best slots online (with 100 free spins every day) but also exciting games such as blackjack, roulette, Slingo, and more! 

Register at The Phone Casino, press play on your calypso music playlist, and find out what luck has in store for you.