NYC's J'Ouvert celebrations once again canceled due to COVID

J'Ouvert
Revelers participate in a Caribbean street carnival called J'ouvert on September 4, 2017 in Brooklyn. Photo credit Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Brooklyn’s popular J’Ouvert celebrations have been canceled once again due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that the pre-dawn J'Ouvert parade was postponed to 2022 after the event went virtual last year.

While J’Ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade are off, Labor Day Weekend will still see some smaller and virtual events from Sept. 2-5, according to city officials.

City Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo says some the smaller, in-person events will take place near the Brooklyn Museum, located off Eastern Parkway, where the large-scale celebrations typically take place.

"It has been a trying two years for us. We are saddened that we are going to cancel another year,” said J’Ouvert City International President Yvette Rennie.

It'll be another year without steel band music and colorful costumes in the streets over the holiday weekend, something that de Blasio said was not easy to do.

"But it's the right thing to do and a great alternative has been put together," said the mayor.

Social media reaction to the cancellations caught flak in the wake of some other large gatherings going on in the city, including the Central Park Homecoming concert, which didn't reach it crescendo due to pouring rain.

"Explain this logic to me. J'ouvert is canceled, but the other outdoor mass gatherings--concerts--the city promoted were fine?" tweeted Alex Kane, a Brooklyn-based writer.