Dexter Khan

My name is Dexter Khan, I am from an organisation with the Carnival band called Cocoyea London. We’re now in our 40th year in bringing costumes to Notting Hill Carnival. 

We started way back in the early 80’s and we will be celebrating our 40th anniversary this year. We started with Metronomes, a Steel Band, just as supporters and then I met a gentleman called Peter Minshall. He was designing a band here in London which we got involved.  

After that, Peter left and went to Trinidad and he became one of the world’s top Carnival designers. After Peter left I met a young lady called Nikki Lyons from Peter Minshall. Peter again was the person who inspired me. After Nikki left I brought in a guy who had been around Cocoyea for many years called Arthur Peters. 

He designed one of the bands called Destroying Angels with huge wings. And after Arthur Peters, a childhood friend who was one of the top designers in Trinidad and worldwide named Wayne Berkley, came and designed for Cocoyea for 15 years, may he rest in peace. 

It is important in London because it brings all the cultures together. In our days it was just the western dance. Today it’s everybody's; the Brazilians, the Indians, the Chinese, the Portugese, the Africans It’s amazing to see what's happening today, it's a melting pot of cultures.

This year might be good because people can recoup, and for 2021 we hope to come back with a bigger spectacle and we hope that everybody will be alright from this nasty nasty Covid.