NYC’s West Indian Day Parade 2023: What you need to know

Sizable crowds are expected to line Brooklyn’s sidewalks as the West Indian Day Parade steps off on Labor Day, marking the final event of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association’s World Stage 2023 New York Carnival Week.

The West Indian Day Parade, one of New York’s most spirited and robust summer festivals, celebrates the culture of the more than 500,000 New Yorkers of non-Hispanic Caribbean descent.

“The essence of it for us here is that we just come together as a culture just to show unity and to show our culture,” Sandy Jean, the co-owner of the Brooklyn based Banboche Masquerade Camp, said. “It’s just a really fun way to represent ourselves …. The purpose for us is to bring joy and color and life into the community.”

The parade usually attracts more than 2 million people.

“It’s a recognition and an acknowledgment of the great contributions that the Caribbean community has made in New York City,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “It’s allowing for folks from the West Indies to really put their culture, their food, their music front and center, and a day to just enjoy being West Indian.”

What is the West Indian Day Parade?

The thunderous celebration of culture that takes place along Eastern Parkway involves dancing, costumes and music, as well as competition among masquerade bands from the city’s Caribbean communities.

“The main feature of our parade is the mas bands and masqueraders in costume presenting a theme through their bands,” said Cecille Ford, the chair of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association’s Mass Committee. “This is something that we have…