The streets of London are quiet. Crowds getting back to their normal lives, with a distinct memory of what last weekend brought them at Notting Hill Carnival. Right now to a lot of people, those memories seem distant and quite possibly a blur, depending on how much rum was consumed, however the more you relive those times, the more that things become ever-more clear. Now the streets from Notting Hill, to Westbourne Park to Ladbroke Grove may just be recovering too, but one thing is for sure is that preparation for next year starts from now.

Sunday 27th August, an early rise, that bubbling excitement as you know you’re about to have the best day, eating the best food, listening to a collection of world class sounds. Starting a Ladbroke Grove, I hopped on the adidas, and atHome, float, ready to be taken around West London in style and amongst a sea of yellow Jamaica football shirts. Why? adidas were there to celebrate the achievements of the “Reggae Girlz at London’s world-famous Notting Hill Carnival, by placing them centre stage on their own bespoke float.

A celebration of the team’s history-making performance at this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, which saw them become the first Caribbean nation to advance to Round 16 in a women’s tournament. As one of the biggest and most famous celebrations of Caribbean culture in Europe, Notting Hill Carnival provided the perfect place for fans of the Reggae Girlz to celebrate their incredible run at the World Cup, which inspired the masses at home and a new generation of footballers.

I think maybe I needed carnival, I think everyone needed it. It always, without fail, brings the best out of people. You become friends with new faces, you try new things and you most certainly get the exercise in trekking from stage to stage and following floats with the sounds. To me, being able to watch legendary acts such as Mala on the Deviation stage, alongside the modern legend Shy One, to a couple streets over and seeing London’s favourite Shaun Sky do what he does best, it’s a blessing to share these moments. What I will say, is that the vibe felt even more joyous than last year, not saying it was bad as fun was very much had, but last year was the reconvening year following the dreaded pandemic that will shall not talk about, but for the purpose of the piece, needs to be acknowledged how this year just felt different.

It’s widely recognised that adidas have the best football shirts, and if you watch your football podcasts, Filthy Fellas were having this discussion recently and Tego Sigel was very much backing the releases, “adidas have consistently been making the best football shirts for five years now”. When you are next to what felt like a hundred adidas x JFF with Wales Bonner shirts, you just nod and agree that they do make the best shirts – it not only brought the style, they brought the colour and carnival vibes.

You just knew when the adidas x atHome float was approaching, by the sea of yellow shirts, and if you didn’t see, then you certainly heard.