CARIBBEAT: At last, J’Ouvert and New York Carnival parade are here

After two years, the New York Carnival kicks off Monday along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — featuring the colorful Caribbean-inspired costume creations, music, food and loads of cheerful island enthusiasm.

And preceding the New York Carnival procession is the independent predawn J’Ouvert Parade, with scores of mud, oil and powder outfits, cleverly designed get ups (often carrying satirical social and political themes), and “steel bands only” entertainment with non-amplified percussion rhythm ensembles.

The big New York Carnival parade is the climax of a five-day festival of events. On Sunday, the penultimate New York Carnival show, the DJ-powered “Paintopia Jouvert NYC,” will be held on the Brooklyn Museum grounds, starting at 7 p.m.

On Labor Day Monday, four grand marshals will lead the procession along a 1.9-mile-long route. Masquerade bands and presentations from cultural groups will follow up, and a big street fair of vendors will be ever-present on the route, said a spokeswoman for the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, the event’s organizer.

There’s been a robust response to parade registration (after the event’s cancellation for two years due to COVID-19), and close to 20 mas bands are due to sashay on the parkway. Masquerade costumes, a carnival mainstay, are works of wonder — designed and completed as a labor of love, and commitment to Caribbean culture.

This dedication fuels the artisans through the designing and manufacturer of costumes in the pre-parade “mas camps” — with the work taking place after 9 to 5 days jobs, and on weekends. The results of their labor are a crop of miraculous costumes that can rival, and even surpass, designs made for Broadway stage fantasies.

“This year our return to the parkway inspires us to continue the cultural work on behalf of our community, city, state and partners,” said a WIADCA spokeswoman. “Without them, the mas and pan groups especially, we would not be here today.”

But long before the Eastern Parkway happenings begin at 11 a.m., Labor Day Monday festivities start before dawn with J’Ouvert revelers parading, at 6 a.m., from Grand Army Plaza, southeast, to Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood.

“The City of New York with Mayor Eric L. Adams, and the New York City Police Department are partnering for a safer Labor Day Weekend,” reads a section of a city webpage promoting J’Ouvert, linking to history on the traditional Trinidad-rooted event, and providing a map of the parade route.

J’Ouvert City International, which organizes the event starting at 6 a.m., has selected 20 grand marshals for their “steadfast commitment and contributions in maintaining and preserving our Caribbean art form.”

For more information on J’Ouvert, visit the city site at nyc.gov/jouvert. And for more information on the New York Carnival, visit carnival.nyc.

‘LEMON PERFECT’ VENTURE

Grand Slam-winning professional tennis star Sloane Stephens, who competed in this year’s US Open in Queens, showed up before her scheduled first match to tout her new partnership with “Lemon Perfect” brand enhanced water.

Stephens, who won the 2017 U.S. Open, was on hand at a pop-up exhibition on Aug. 29 (National Lemon Day) to promote the hydrating lemon water — with a loads of bottled “Lemon Perfect” water, fruitful lemon tree plants, and a matching, lemon-yellow Plymouth automobile.

Lemon Perfect will be supporting Stephens’ charity efforts — her non-profit Sloane Stephens Foundation, and her Doc & Glo Scholarship, named for her grandparents. Stephens’ maternal grandfather hailed from Trinidad. Visit lemonperfect.com and learn more about Stephens’ charities at the Sloane Stephens Foundation.

JAMAICA ANNIVERSARY GALA

Looking proudly to the past and confidently towards the future, the “Jamaica Diamond Jubilee Black Tie Gala” marked the Caribbean nation’s 60th anniversary of independence from the United Kingdom with an affair at the Marriott Marquis’ Grand Ballroom in Manhattan on Aug. 20.

The benefit affair — which aids “health, education and community development in Jamaica and here in New York” — was attended by Mayor Adams and other VIPs.