The colors of the Caribbean nations were on display in Brooklyn Monday as tens of thousands of revelers gyrated to the beat of the West Indian Day Parade.
Humid weather and an occasional thunder shower did little to muffle the steel drums, staccato whistles, horns and dancing feet of the most festive of New York festivities.
“I wait for this all year,” said Katty Antoine, 20, of East Orange, N.J.
Antoine had “Haiti” shaved into her hair, carried the Haitian flag in both hands and was dressed from head to toe in red, blue, white and green – the colors of her homeland.
“I love the Haitian float,” Antoine said. “It’s the best float in the whole country.”
Conrad Peters, 21, a student at Queens College, said he was there to represent Trinidad. “I love my heritage,” he said. “I’m wearing my country’s colors to represent for my family and show America how great my country is.”
The parade is a mandatory stop for city politicians representing Brooklyn and beyond.
Mayor Bloomberg marched the Eastern Parkway route, waving to cheering spectators and ignoring the boos of others. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz tried to keep rhythm with the soca and calypso sounds as he rode a float with reggae music legend Mighty Sparrow.
Along the 2-mile parade route, vendors hawked jerk chicken, red beans and rice, and bandanas and flags of West Indian nations from Turks and Caicos to Trinidad and Tobago.
Ian Noray, 48, a delivery truck driver from Crown Heights, danced and shook everything he had from atop a pillar along Eastern Parkway as floats launched shivers of bass through the neighborhood.
“It’s carnival in my country! Everything they celebrate in a month, we cram into one day,” the Trinidad native shouted. “The best part is, all creeds and races of people gather here together.”
