Carnival Sounds

Carnival Sounds is an immersive digital experience created for Spotify when the iconic Notting Hill Carnival was cancelled for the first time in its 54-year history due to COVID-19. Notting Hill Carnival is the UK's most important event for Black music and Caribbean culture, drawing around two million people to West London every August for celebrations, costumes, food, steel pans, and music from 38+ official sound systems. When the project kicked off in late 2019, the team assumed the partnership would involve a live event — but as the pandemic spread, it became clear that Carnival would go digital. Spotify was named the official 2020 partner, and the dedicated microsite was live from August 24 to September 12, 2020.

The creative vision centered on the sound systems — the only carnival in the world to feature multiple static systems — as the conceptual foundation for the entire experience. Speakers were rendered as pulsating, spherical forms representing the life of the party, with typography inspired by vintage Caribbean event posters that appears to vibrate to the sounds. Playlists from all 42 sound systems and DJ legends are stacked on the page like speakers themselves, with artwork that pulses when bass is turned up. The team created 50 unique artworks, each personalizing individual sound systems while maintaining a cohesive identity. Spotify deliberately assembled an all-Black creative team, working with paq works — a Black-owned, London-based creative agency founded by Chiamaka Ojechi, Joshua Allen, and Ebele Davis. British-Jamaican photographer Ekua King was commissioned to create exclusive portraits on film and VHS footage for each sound system.

The site was built with React and Gatsby, with GraphQL for data management, delivered in a 3-week development sprint at Stink Studios. The experience featured an interactive exploration of over 40 official sound systems — including King Tubby's (Carnival's oldest sound), Rampage Sound, Martin Jay (the prince of UK soca), and Seduction City Sound (Carnival's only all-female sound system) — with animated artwork, dynamic sonic design, and deep integration with Spotify's playlist infrastructure.

The inaugural 2020 edition was so successful that it evolved into a multi-year global campaign running from 2020 to 2023, spanning microsite, out-of-home advertising, and in-real-life initiatives. By 2024, Spotify was celebrating its sixth consecutive year of collaboration with Notting Hill Carnival.

The project won Awwwards Site of the Day and Developer Award, received a D&AD Shortlist in the Service Digitisation category, CSS Winner Site of the Day with a 7.9/10 score, and an FWA feature. It was also nominated for a Music Week Award in the Music Consumer Innovation category. Press coverage included features in Variety, Hypebeast, Music Week, Event Industry News, Voice Online, and the Spotify Newsroom. The project became a template for how cultural events could translate to digital experiences, and was one of the first times sound systems had been highlighted in such a comprehensive digital way.