Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York State Governor David Paterson and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell were among the luminaries who danced to calypso music, pressed flesh with glittering dancers and feasted on curried goat while leading thrill seekers to joy at the West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade in Brooklyn.
Paterson appeared unfazed by chants of “no third term” as he pounded the pavement along Eastern Parkway with a dazzling ribbon of costumed and plummed strollers, plus an entourage of co-grand marshals, which included Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, State Senator John Sampson, New York Police Department Chief Joseph J. Esposito and Mark Cornell, chief executive officer of Moet Hennessy USA.
An estimated throng of two million celebrated their national pride during the 42nd annual spectacle, which wowed the crowd with pulsating bands and entertainers, a flotilla of floats and masquerading merrymakers, who helped transform Utica and Washington avenues into boulevards of Caribbean sights, sounds and aromatic smells before heading to Grand Army Plaza for culminating ceremonies.
Joining the line of march were corporate sponsors, local dignitaries and community groups, who helped bolster the ranks of the happy hordes as they strutted their stuff and provided plenty of extravagant eye candy along the 12-block stretch.
Frolickers cut dashing figures in resplendent, homemade costumes, some of which had taken months and thousands of dollars to make. They cast a sea of color along the magnificent line of march and brought to the borough the essence of the tropical islands.
The age-old cultural tradition of carnival is thousands of years old and was brought to Trinidad from France in the 1700s, and then to the United States from Trinidad during the 1930s.
The parade is presented locally by the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, which this year joined the American Cancer Society and the US Census Bureau in an effort to highlight the importance of regular cancer screenings and Census tracking in the Caribbean community.
