91Èȱ¬

Pat Howe wearing one of her creations.

Why Carnival is in my blood

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I was born in London and lived in a very multi-cultural neighbourhood. A lot of my friends come from all over the world and I became involved in a lot of their different religions and festivals.

In 1968 I moved up to Norwich with my one year old son and lived on an estate that was very quiet. There was not a lot around and in 1974,Ìý together with a bunch of other parents we formed our own community group, and ran a play scheme with after school activities etc.

And that’s when we first took part in the Lord Mayor’s procession in Norwich.Ìý I’ve probably taken part every year since in the Lord Mayor’s procession.

I have spent many weekends with my close friend Frankie, learning the art of Caribbean style costume and that’s something very dear to my heart.Ìý I have been over to the West Indies, to Tobago and worked with a community group over there, which was so different but the needs are the same.

I just love arts and crafts and passing the skills on. I’m probably self-taught in many respects. If I see something I have a go and make it. If I have problems I might go to the library, or I phone people up and say ‘hey how do you do this?’. It’s trial and error really. You learn all the time.

Carnival has no boundaries. Anyone can take part and you just adapt the way you make costumes. I think I’ll probably do it for the rest of my life and I hope what I do is passed onto many generations, which I’m sure it will.Ìý