THE SOUNDS OF NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL

THIS IS CARNIVAL IN MOTION. THIS IS CARNIVAL SOUNDS.

TBV Productions was commissioned to capture behind-the-scenes content for Spotify’s Carnival Sounds campaign at Notting Hill Carnival 2025. The project formed part of Spotify’s sixth year partnering with Carnival and supported a multi-channel activation spanning social, YouTube, in-app experiences, and out-of-home placements.

The campaign, led by DJ AG, explored the sounds that define Carnival culture, from Reggae and Dancehall to Soca, positioning music as both heritage and lived experience. TBV’s role was to document the people, process, and atmosphere behind the campaign with cultural sensitivity and narrative intent.

OUR APPROACH

TBV Productions approached the Carnival Sounds campaign with the understanding that Carnival is not a controlled production environment, but a living cultural space. Our role was to embed ourselves respectfully within the wider production, capturing moments as they unfolded rather than directing them. The focus was on authenticity, cultural awareness, and narrative flow, ensuring the behind-the-scenes content reflected the true energy, scale, and meaning of Carnival.

We treated BTS not as secondary material, but as a parallel storytelling layer. Every moment was captured with platform relevance in mind, allowing the content to feel immediate, human, and aligned with Gen Z viewing behaviour across social channels.

PRODUCTION

TBV was commissioned to deliver behind-the-scenes documentation for Spotify’s Carnival Sounds campaign at Notting Hill Carnival 2025, part of Spotify’s sixth consecutive year partnering with the event. Filming took place across the Carnival weekend, capturing artists, tastemakers, presenters, and production teams in motion, alongside the wider environment of sound systems, crowds, and procession routes.

The work supported a multi-channel campaign that included a hero YouTube film, Spotify in-app hub visuals, refreshed playlist artwork, and large-scale out-of-home placements positioned along the Carnival route. Our coverage complemented these hero assets by revealing the process and people behind them, grounding a global platform’s campaign in lived cultural experience.

IMPACT

The behind-the-scenes content added depth and credibility to the Carnival Sounds campaign by showing how culture is built, not just how it is presented. It reinforced authenticity with a Gen Z audience that values transparency and process, while extending the lifespan of the campaign beyond its core deliverables.

By documenting real interactions and unscripted moments, the content strengthened Spotify’s connection to Carnival as a grassroots cultural space, rather than a purely branded environment.

WHY TBV

TBV Productions specialises in documenting culture from the inside out. Our experience working within fast-moving, high-pressure cultural environments allows us to capture moments without disrupting them. We understand how global brands intersect with grassroots communities and how to translate that relationship into visual storytelling that feels credible, respectful, and emotionally resonant.

For Carnival Sounds, this meant delivering behind-the-scenes content that did more than show access. It demonstrated understanding, trust, and a genuine connection to the culture at the centre of the campaign.