Thrill seekers had their fill and then some as close to three million of them joined festive forces for Brooklyn’s 41st Annual West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade in Flatbush.
Pulsating bands, a flotilla of floats, strolling performers and rollicking revelers transformed the area into a wonderland of Caribbean sights, sounds and aromatic smells, stepping off the Labor Day jaunt on Eastern Parkway and taking in Utica and Washington avenues along the way 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 masquerading merrymakers 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 to make, as they cast a sea of color along the magnificent line of march and brought to Brooklyn 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.
