J’Ouvert, the exuberant pre-dawn parade that kicks off Brooklyn’s Caribbean Carnival, has been canceled for the second year in a row, amid ongoing concerns about the coronavirus.
The event, which typically draws tens of thousands of people to the streets of Crown Heights and Flatbush, will be called off in order to “protect the health and safety of our people,” according to organizers.
“It has been a trying two years for us,” said Yvette Rennie, the president of J’Ouvert City International. “We are saddened that we are going to cancel another year. But this gives us time to mobilize our organizations to make sure that each and every one of them understands what happened and why we are doing this.”
Smaller educational events will still take place, including a walking tour of historical buildings along the parade route, culminating at the site of an African burial ground at Church and Bedford Avenue, Rennie said.
The decision comes a little more than a week after the organizers of the West Indian Day Parade announced plans to replace their festivities with virtual and small in-person events. The Coney Island Mermaid Parade was also canceled this month, with organizers citing the rise of the delta variant and breakthrough infections.
At a press conference on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he “commended” the community leaders for making the decision to cancel. It’s unclear whether the city will crack down on any unsanctioned party activity, as he pledged to do in 2020.
While some committed revelers took to the streets last summer, the celebrations were muted, and the parade route was largely deserted for much of the night.
During the announcement on Monday, Rennie vowed that the celebrations would return “bigger and better in 2022.”
“We know that our culture is alive,” she added. “The most responsible thing that we did for our community is canceling.”
