Carnaby Street Christmas lights in 2017 turned the street into a Christmas Carnival. Green illuminated palms, colourful birds and a blue canopy hung above the shops, while dancers in feathered costumes brought the party into the crowd. I went along for the switch-on and stayed to see the street fill with people.
This film was originally published on 10 November 2017. It captures that year’s carnival-themed celebration, with photographs taken from the original footage. The event details and shop promotions mentioned in the film belong to that evening.
Arriving on Carnaby Street
I begin with a walk along the shopfronts, talking about Carnaby’s connection with fashion and the generations who have made it their own. In the film, I reflect on how the street keeps changing while continuing to draw people together for shopping, food and drink.
That sense of reinvention also runs through its Christmas decorations. As I say at the start, the thing to expect here is the unexpected. For 2017, the theme is Christmas Carnival, and I am waiting to see how the decorations will look once the lights are on.
The Carnaby Street Christmas lights come alive
The switch-on evening is also a street party. In my introduction, I mention DJs and promotions in the shops and restaurants, with a much larger crowd expected as the evening develops. Soon the camera turns away from the shop windows and towards the decorations overhead.
Bright green palm leaves stretch out between the buildings. Colourful shapes and birds hang around them, while blue lights form broad discs above the street. The result gives the familiar shopping route a theatrical ceiling, with something to notice both nearby and further along the road.
Feathered dancers in the crowd
At street level, the carnival theme continues through the performers’ costumes. Red and yellow feathered headdresses rise above the spectators, with white feathers catching the light from the surrounding shops. People gather in a circle, holding up phones to record the dancers.
The crowd becomes part of the view. Some people stop directly beside the performers; others watch from behind or try to find a clearer angle. The film stays with these scenes, letting the movement and colour carry the middle of the evening.
Looking beyond the dancers reveals the decorations continuing into the distance. The green palms and blue canopy give the street a strong rhythm, while the bright shopfronts keep the spectators visible beneath them. It is a busy, close-up view of the switch-on party.
Birds, flowers and the carnival arch
I also turn towards a neighbouring street, where a large colourful bird hangs above strings of lights. Purple light washes across the buildings below it. These smaller views show how the decorations extend beyond the main stretch of Carnaby Street.
Then the camera looks up at the Carnaby Christmas Carnival arch. Flowers frame the lettering, with illuminated palms above and the rest of the display stretching away behind it. The sign brings the evening’s theme together in a single view.
A final walk beneath the lights
Towards the end, I return to the street and its crowd. Looking along the route gives a final sense of the whole display: the canopy overhead, palm leaves between the buildings and the carnival colours further away. I close with a brief goodbye before the last views of the lights.
This short film preserves Carnaby’s Christmas Carnival as an evening of colour, performance and people. For more from the same season, continue with the Covent Garden Christmas lights and market decorations or the Regent Street angels and fireworks.
