Founder Jermaine Young-Bushay travels to Brooklyn to experience the immense scale, diverse cultures and strong sense of community behind New York’s historic West Indian American Day Carnival.
This September, Jermaine Young-Bushay, actor and founder of Caribbeans Connects — a platform created to connect Caribbean creatives and communities around the world — travelled from the UK to New York to experience the West Indian American Day Carnival in Brooklyn for the first time.
Young-Bushay immersed himself in the celebrations over Labor Day weekend, culminating in the annual West Indian Day Carnival Parade along Eastern Parkway on Monday, 7 September 2026.
The event, organised by the West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA), is one of the largest celebrations of Caribbean culture in the world and has become a major cultural institution for New York’s Caribbean diaspora.
Guided by a relative who lives locally, Young-Bushay also explored Brownsville and other parts of Brooklyn, meeting local people and experiencing Caribbean life in New York outside of the main carnival celebrations.
One of the things that struck him most during the weekend was the strong sense of Caribbean community ownership surrounding the carnival.
“What really stood out to me was seeing Caribbean people involved at so many different levels,” said Young-Bushay. “From production and setting up stages to media, press areas, performers, vendors and people working behind the scenes, you could really see the community taking ownership of its culture and presenting it to the world.”
When parade day arrived, the scale of the celebration left an even greater impression.
Thousands of people filled Eastern Parkway as flags, music, costumes, food and different Caribbean cultures came together across Brooklyn.
For Young-Bushay, travelling from Britain, one of the most interesting aspects was seeing parts of the Caribbean diaspora that are not always as visible within traditional British-Caribbean spaces.
Alongside the larger and more familiar Caribbean communities, he encountered people and cultural representation connected to places including Honduras, Belize, the US Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic and Panama.
It demonstrated just how broad the Caribbean identity and diaspora can be across the Americas.
“Coming from London, we have an incredible Caribbean community and obviously we have Notting Hill Carnival,” Young-Bushay said. “But New York showed me another side of the diaspora. I was meeting Caribbean people and communities that we don't necessarily come across as often in the UK.”
Young-Bushay also said he encountered relatively few visitors from Britain during the weekend — something he believes represents an opportunity for greater cultural exchange between Caribbean communities in the UK and United States.
“For anyone in the UK looking for a brilliant alternative — or even an addition — to Notting Hill Carnival, I would definitely recommend planning a trip to New York for Labor Day,” he said.
“It is an opportunity to cross borders, experience different Caribbean cultures and connect with another part of our global community. It is a memory I will never forget.”
The experience also reinforced the purpose behind Caribbeans Connects.
Founded to create connections between Caribbean creatives, businesses and communities across borders, the platform aims to make it easier for members of the diaspora to discover one another, collaborate and create opportunities internationally.
For Young-Bushay, travelling from London to Brooklyn demonstrated the potential for stronger links between Caribbean communities in Britain, the United States, the Caribbean and the wider diaspora.
The New York Labor Day Carnival is a powerful reminder of exactly why Caribbeans Connects exists: to bridge the gaps between our communities and bring the global Caribbean diaspora closer together.
Young-Bushay continues to encourage creatives to join the network — not simply to find opportunities for themselves, but also to connect, collaborate and create opportunities for others.
You can watch the full YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruYJWHiKOPs&list=PLSfiqITxbeh0&index=2
To join the Caribbeans Connects network and connect with Caribbean talent around the world, visit: