NYC West Indian Day Parade 2024: Times, route, street closures and more

NEW YORK CITY – The West Indian American Day Parade 2024 kicked off Monday in NYC, with thousands of revelers dancing and marching along Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway in one of the world’s largest celebrations of Caribbean culture.

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Now in its 57th year, the annual Labor Day event turns the borough’s Eastern Parkway into a kaleidoscope of feather-covered costumes and colorful flags as participants make their way down the thoroughfare alongside floats stacked high with speakers playing soca and reggae music.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 05: Revelers participate in the annual West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn. The parade follows the Caribbean street carnival, J’ouvert, which draws tens of thousands of costumed celebrants. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Gett

The event has its roots in more traditionally timed, pre-Lent Carnival celebrations started by a Trinidadian immigrant in Manhattan around a century ago, according to the organizers. The festivities were moved to the warmer time of year in the 1940s.

Here’s everything you need to know about the parade, including how to get to it and street closures in the area.

West Indian Day Parade start time

The parade was from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

West Indian Day Parade location

The parade routinely attracts huge crowds, who line the almost 2-mile route that runs from Crown Heights to the Brooklyn Museum.

What is the West Indian Day Parade NYC 2024?

The parade consists of a competition for the best masquerade costume.

Groups of paradegoers known as mas bands are judged based on rules and regulations from Trinidad and Tobago, the home of Carnival.

Over a million participated in the parade and the events leading up, according to organizers. 

The parade features hundreds of lavish costumes, dancers and music representing the various countries that make up the West Indies. The West Indies consists of 13 island countries and territories surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. 

• Anguilla
• Antigua Barbuda Montserrat
• Aruba
• Barbados
• Bermuda
• Bonaire
• British Virgin Islands
• Cuba
• Curaçao
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Grenada
• Guadeloupe
• Haiti
• Jamaica
• Martinique
• Puerto Rico
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Sint Maarten
• The Bahamas
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• US Virgin Islands

On-site parking is available in a lot behind the Museum, off Washington Avenue.

Women are getting ready to participate in the West Indian American Day Parade marking the Labour Day in Brooklyn, Borough of New York City on September 04, 2023. (Photo by Leonardo Munoz / AFP) (Photo by LEONARDO MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images)

During normal service, take the 2/3 to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum, which is a wheelchair accessible station. 

Transfer to 2/3 from 4/5 (at Nevins Street) and B, D, Q, N, R, and LIRR (at Atlantic Terminal-Barclays Center).

NYC subway map

To see the MTA subway map, click HERE.

• Bedford Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Empire Boulevard
• Buffalo Avenue between Eastern Parkway and East New York Avenue
• Butler Place between Grand Army Plaza and Sterling Place
• East New York Avenue between Howard Avenue and Utica Avenue
• Eastern Parkway between Howard Avenue and Grand Army Plaza
• Empire Boulevard between Flatbush Avenue and Nostrand Avenue
• Flatbush Avenue between Grand Army Plaza and Caton Avenue
• Grand Army Plaza (Entire Circle)
• Lincoln Place between Eastern Parkway and East New York Avenue
• Nostrand Avenue between Empire Boulevard and Linden Boulevard
• Ocean Avenue between Empire Boulevard and Parkside Avenue
• Parkside Avenue between Park Circle and Flatbush Avenue
• Ralph Avenue between Eastern Parkway and East New York Avenue
• Rochester Avenue between East New York Avenue and Sterling Place
• Rockaway Parkway between East New York Avenue and Rutland Road
• St. Johns Place between Underhill Avenue and Grand Army Plaza
• Washington Avenue between Sterling Place and Lincoln Road

The Associated Press wire services helped contribute to this report.