Spectacular costumes are all part of the fun of annual West Indian American Day Carnival on Labor Day in Brooklyn (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Eastern Pkwy. from Rochester Ave. to Grand Army Plaza
Monday, September 2, free, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
718-467-1797
www.wiadca.com
2012 parade slideshow
Every Labor Day, millions of people line Eastern Parkway, celebrating the city’s best annual parade, the West Indian American Day Carnival, waving flags from such nations as Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, the Cayman Islands, Antigua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Aruba, Curaçao, and many more. The festivities begin with the Junior Carnival on Saturday from Kingston Ave. to the Brooklyn Museum grounds ($2 at museum gate), followed by the Steel Band Panorama at the museum at 3:00 ($45), with Pan Sonatas, CASYM, Crossfire, Pantonics, Adlib, Metro, and the NYU Steel Orchestra, among others. On Sunday at 7:00 ($35), the museum hosts Dimanche Gras, with live performances by David Rudder, Calypso Rose, Panther, Liam Teague, Robert Greenidge, Devyn, Swallow, the Something Positive Dance Troupe, and more. The Labor Day partying commences at 2:00 am with the traditional J’Ouvert Morning, a precarnival procession featuring steel drums and percussion and fabulous, inexpensive masquerade costumes, marching from Grand Army Plaza to Flatbush Ave. and on to Empire Blvd., then to Nostrand Ave. and Linden Blvd.
Colorful parade features great music, dancing, food, and more (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
The Parade of Bands begins around 11:00 am, as truckloads of blasting Caribbean music and groups of ornately dressed dancers, costume bands, masqueraders, moko jumbies, and thousands of others bump and grind their way down Eastern Parkway to Grand Army Plaza, participating in one last farewell to the flesh prior to Lent. This year should feature even more politicians than usual, since the primaries are the next week; the grand marshals are the Trini from Tunapuna and MC Wassy (Christopher Bowen). Don’t eat before you go; the great homemade food includes ackee and saltfish, oxtail stew, breadfruit, macaroni pie, curried goat, jerk chicken, fishcakes, rice and peas, and red velvet cake. The farther east you venture, the more closed in it gets; by the time you get near Crown Heights, it could take you half an hour just to cross the street (although the police have been opening more areas to cross to reduce the outrageous congestion the last few years), so take it easy and settle in for a fun, colorful day where you need not hurry. In addition, be prepared to see a whole of twerkin’ going on, putting Miley Cyrus to shame.