Maxy Chartey brings the glitz and glam, Dario Blake the business and logistics – together they power Camberwell Carnival on the Green each August. Marie Staunton meets the dynamic duo
Dario
Six years old, high on his uncle’s shoulders at Notting Hill Carnival, Dario looks out over a sea of people. Streets packed. Music rises. Bodies moving. “It was surreal,” he says. “Seeing that many humans on a street, partying.” It stays with him. Years later, another moment lands. He is 13, a scholarship boy newly arrived at boarding school in Godalming. A different world. Then he sees his old school on the news. Damilola Taylor has been killed. “I realised bad things could happen to good people.” The thought lodges deep. Home is the Pelican Estate, on the border of Camberwell and Peckham. It felt safe. It still does, in its own way. Young people gather on stairwells, chilling out because there is nowhere else to go. “But for them, it’s the coolest place to be. With their friends.” Dario leaves. Studies applied psychology at Durham University. Returns. And steps up. He becomes chair of the Tenants’ and Residents’ Association. Community matters. It means: “A fun, safe place. Where you know your neighbour. Where you can speak up. Hold the council to account.” He now runs his own business, Just in Time Cooperative – hiring out equipment for community, corporate and family events, with a strong green ethos. Solar generators. Reusable kit. Practical ways, he says, to respond to a world “burning up”. The idea of doing something for himself had been there for a while. Inspired by Barack Obama – “if your goal is to make a quick buck on Wall Street, it displays a poverty of ambition” – he wanted something rooted, something that made a difference. Camberwell Carnival grows out of small beginnings. A speaker. A gazebo. A party in Peckham Rye. Then more people come. Then more still. “You look around and think – this is something.” He knows history. Camberwell Fair once filled the Green – noisy, riotous, alive – before it was closed in 1855. The carnival picks up that thread. Now it is music, food, families, children playing – and something more. A space to talk. The “Let’s Talk” stage brings in local groups and activists. If you have people’s attention, Dario says, you use it. The first time he really noticed Maxy, he was on stage. Holding a crowd. “Really powerful,” he says. That energy would change everything.
Maxy
Maxy laughs when he describes it. “I’m the glitz and glam. Dario’s the business and logistics.” It works. Just about. “We’ve had moments of pure rage,” he says, remembering the pressure of putting on a carnival. “Proper bickering.” Then he shrugs. “But we’ve bonded. We’re family now.” This summer will be their third Camberwell Carnival. What began as Dario’s park events has grown into something bigger, sharper, more ambitious. Together they shaped it. Maxy brings performance, instinct, and energy. Dario brings structure, contacts, and a logistical brain that keeps the whole thing standing. Maxy’s route here is anything but tidy. He grew up across South London, ending up on an estate in Vauxhall in a flat “full of love and creativity” despite gangs outside. At nine he was already acting and dancing. “It was like a double life.” For a while football nearly won. Acting edged it. But drama school felt closed off. “I thought it was for kids from elites, not from estates,” he says. Instead, he took a theatre degree, modelled for major brands, and even appeared in Vogue. Still, something niggled. So, he tested himself. At LAMDA they stopped him mid-speech. He had the place. A scholarship followed. “I just wanted to prove I was good enough.” Now he performs. Recently in Deep Azure at the Globe. Still dancing with Villain Crew. Touring. Moving. Creating. Carnival pulls it together. “It’s about expression,” he says. “Music, dance, food, ideas. A space where people feel safe and celebrated.” Why Camberwell? “It’s a middle ground. A place where communities meet.” The hardest part is growth. The best part is simpler. “Seeing people come back every year. Not just friends. Real crowds.” Maxy smiles. “That’s when you know you’ve built something.” Different instincts. Same vision. Together, Just in Time Cooperative is turning a moment into a movement.
