Dancers clad in sequined bikinis and feathered tiaras are expected to converge on Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway starting at 11 a.m. on Monday for the annual West Indian Day Parade, the culmination of a week of events celebrating Caribbean culture, music and history.
The parade is one of New York’s most spirited, and features lavish costumes and thunderous trucks blasting Caribbean pop loved by some 500,000 New Yorkers of non-Hispanic Caribbean descent.
Over a million people are expected to participate in the parade and surrounding events, according to organizer Anne Rhea Smith, first vice president of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association.
“Each group that’s presenting has easily 500 to 1,500 people,” she said in a phone interview. “And we have some wonderful Haitian American groups that are coming on the Parkway and those are easily 4,000 to 5,000 people each.”
What is the West Indian Day Parade?
The parade is a cultural celebration, a dance party and a competition to determine who has the best masquerade costumes. Troupes of paradegoers — known as mas bands, short for masquerade — are judged based on the rules and regulations of Trinidad and Tobago, the traditional home of carnival.
“The judges judge on theme, how you match your theme with the costume and the presentation,” Smith said. “They also match it with the energy of the presentation, how the masqueraders work together to really excite the audience and display their heritage.”
When does the parade start?
Officially, the West Indian Day Parade runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday. However, the parade caps a week of events that includes Steel Panorama and J’Ouvert.
Panorama is a steel drum competition where eight to 10 pan orchestras will compete in front of the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday at 7 p.m.
J’Ouvert, French for “break of day,” is an early morning bacchanal fest involving paint and mud.
What is the parade route?
The parade steps off from Lincoln Terrace Park in Crown Heights and heads west along Eastern Parkway, culminating with a presentation in front of the Brooklyn Museum.
What should attendees expect?
Spectators are welcome to line the street, but only revelers who are registered with a mas band and are wearing wristbands will be allowed to party in the street. Police and private security will stop others.
“It’s fun – safe and fun,” Smith said. “We have safety precautions that we put in place. We work with NYPD, we work with many of our crime prevention groups so that we can secure the Parkway for everyone.”