It started as a small festival at Moorways Sports Centre in 1975, where community members came together to organise activities for fundraising. From 1986, with a worker’s employment for Caribbean Focus, the carnival became a much bigger venture, attracting regional and national interest. Originally the carnival was held over one day on a Saturday, but in 1998 a new two-day approach was adopted with the carnival procession taking place on Saturday and events, such as a stage show with internationally acclaimed artists, fun fair, beer tent, sound systems, arts and craft stalls, food stalls (selling Caribbean as well as European foods) being held at Osmaston Park on Sunday. This was successful and since then the carnival was held over a two-day period.
Over the years much of the funding for carnival has been provided by DWICA itself, but with important additional support from Arts Council England and Derby City Council. Carnival has also been supported by Derbyshire Building Society, Rolls Royce, Western Union and Midland Mainline to name just a few sponsoring organizations over the years.
In 2016 due to cuts in local authority funding the carnival returned to a one-day event with a parade travelling from Pear Tree Road to the city centre Market Place where entertainment was held. During the carnival period, DWICA can attract as many as 150 volunteers to help with carnival organisation, carnival workshops, Carnival Queen Show, marshalling and publicity. Without this huge volunteer effort, the carnival would not be possible.
