The best Labor Day plans aren’t always outside of the city! Every Labor Day, one of NYC’s most colorful traditions, the West Indian Day Parade, takes over Brooklyn streets. The annual event honors and celebrates Caribbean diaspora with costumes, floats and flags.
Here’s everything to know about this year’s West Indian Day Parade!
West Indian Day Parade history
NYC’s West Indian Day Parade dates back to the 1930s. Caribbean immigrants would host an indoor Carnival celebration due to the city’s cold winters. However, it wasn’t until Jessie Waddle acquired an official permit for the parade, that it took to Harlem streets in 1947 to better embody the outdoor festivals in the Caribbean.
The parade eventually relocated to Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway in 1969—where it still occurs today—after the original permit was revoked in 1947 and officially renamed to the West Indian-American Day Parade…