Notting Hill fills London's streets, Venice prepares ten years of Glass Week

Two opposite ways of occupying public space with culture, in the same stretch of the calendar. In London, on the last weekend of August, the Notting Hill Carnival takes place, described as Europe’s largest street festival and a central event of British Caribbean culture: the information was published here. The news currently comes from a single source; no independent confirmation is available, and with it no estimate of attendance, no data on routes, closures or security arrangements.

This is a gap worth stating rather than filling. For a street event involving an entire neighbourhood, the figures that usually circulate — participants, sound systems, hours of programming — are estimates, not measurements, and this newspaper does not publish them unless found in a verifiable source. What remains is the fact: the event is scheduled for this weekend and its origin is British Caribbean culture, that is, an immigrant culture that has become the official calendar of a European capital.

The opposite case: Venice. The tenth edition of The Venice Glass Week is set between 12 and 20 September 2026 and is spread across three locations — the historic city, the island of Murano and Mestre — with more than two hundred events including exhibitions, installations, talks and workshops dedicated to glass. The programme includes the initiative “Murano Illumina il Mondo” and two international hubs dedicated to the relationship between local craftsmen and established and emerging artists; details are available here. This information too rests on a single source; no independent confirmation is available.

Here the relationship with space is reversed compared to London. The carnival occupies the streets for a weekend and then dissolves; the Venice showcase spreads more than two hundred events over nine days and three locations, holding together active furnaces, exhibition venues and the mainland periphery. The explicit reference to the relationship between local craftsmen and international artists is the formula through which Murano’s craftsmanship tries not to remain merely an object of conservation: the workshop as a site of contemporary production, not as a museum of itself.

A third piece, from the same milieu. On 29 August Palazzo Grassi devoted an evening to the artist Amar Kanwar, with the screening of “Such a Morning” in the presence of the author. It is the kind of event with which Venice’s institutions light up their calendars once the summer season has ended.

What we do not know. Of the London carnival we do not know the exact start and end dates, security arrangements or expected attendance. Of the Glass Week we do not know the list of exhibitors, the venues of the two international hubs, or whether access to the events is free or paid. We do not know which institutions are funding the tenth edition. On Palazzo Grassi we do not have the calendar of upcoming initiatives.

The two verifiable dates remain those published: the carnival is held in London on the last weekend of August, the Glass Week opens on 12 September and closes on 20 September.