60 years after the first Notting Hill Carnival festival exploded into the West London streets, the 2026 festival is getting a new look and sound with Rhythm and Roots, a Foot Locker x adidas project that forefronts premier Black British talent. Spanning fashion, music, film, photography, and art, this team-up celebrates both the history and future of Carnival in all its sweaty, glittering, bass and steelpan-bumping glory.
Since 1966, Notting Hill Carnival has spotlighted the diversity and beauty of African-Caribbean culture in Britain. While it first began as a small street party, the festival has now grown into an August Bank Holiday staple, regularly attracting up to two million people every year. If you’re attending this year, expect a flurry of flags, football shirts, beads, feathers, and, of course, trainers.
You can celebrate Carnival 2026 with Foot Locker and adidas on the Rhythm and Roots stage, where an exciting (and still under-wraps) line-up will bring together generations of Black British Music. Mark your calendars for next week when more details will be revealed.
In the meantime, step into the world of Meeks + Frost, a directorial Jamaican-British brother duo whose film captures the spirit of the Rhythm and Roots campaign. An array of artists and performers star in the film, including Ricki ‘Rickinzi’ Soltau, a rising force in the electronic music scene, viral artist and oil painter Teoni Hinds, dancer Chloe Hartlett, a Carnival icon, Fitzroy Hawes, the chef behind beloved Caribbean spot Soulfood Peckham (otherwise known as JB’s), next-gen fashion stylist Nyah HB, and 14-year-old Chais Simpson, an up-and-comer of Brentford FC’s academy. Together, with cameos from adidas icons, the Samba, Superstar and Gazelle, these Black British trailblazers illustrate why Carnival has sustained its grip on the London imagination for 60 years.
Reminiscent of the work of Vanley Burke and Charlie Phillips, street photographers and famed chroniclers of the Black British experience, Meeks + Frost’s film is portraiture in motion. With a focus on the people who make Carnival what it is, this hero film is rich with cultural storytelling. While Burke and Phillips took to the streets with their cameras, capturing the arrival of their communities in Britain. Meeks + Frosts capture the resilience of the African-Caribbean communities.
It’s difficult to talk about Carnival without talking about the bombastic fashion so closely associated with the festival. From masquerade costumes to comfortable, dance-ready street wear, vibrant visual expression has always been a tenet of Carnival.
The Foot Locker x adidas programme honours this history with a collaboration with artist Teoni Hinds. The young, London-based Fine Artist has transformed the visual language of Carnival into wearable art – a fresh T-shirt design that will feature across adidas Originals Trefoil Essentials Tees in black and white, playing with the iconic symbol to new ends. The shirts will be given away at Foot Locker’s in-store event in Croydon on 28 August, and will also be worn by performers throughout Carnival weekend.
Taken together, Rhythm and Roots is a fitting tribute to the past 60 years of Notting Hill Carnival, while keeping its gaze firmly on what comes next. By putting Black British artists, musicians, creatives, and communities at the heart of the celebration, Foot Locker and adidas are honouring the people who have made Carnival what it is, as well as the new generation who will carry its rhythm forward.
