j'ouvert

Subject: j'ouvert

so i asked about this on the lock you doors thread too. sorry for the repetition -- since that thread is going down a long and winding road, i thought it might be worthwhile to repost:

have you gone to j'ouvert?

what's it like?

it sounds cool.

I'm also curious about WHERE it is. Is it on Eastern Parkway too?

on Flatbush, between the park and botanic garden, last time I looked into it.

you *did* get some responses on the Lock You Doors thread . . . if you can stand the rest of the discussion . . .

Saturday is the Pan-o-rama steel drum competition at Brooklyn Museum. The Target First Saturday listings are so tardy on the web, I don't know if there is all one event . . .

pitu wrote: [quote=Carnivore][quote=Idlewild]Wtf is j'ouvert btw?

Essentially a massive pre-party.

preferred by some original participants as a non-electrified celebration -- pan playing, not sound trucks

the big trucks with sound systems overshadow the pan orchestras in the main parade

J'ouvert starts at Grand Army Plaza by the Library - it usually starts around 2:00 AM and travels through Flatbush to Empire Blvd, and ends on Nostrand Avenue and Linden Blvd - ends just in time for the start of the parade on Monday.

J'Ouvert, or jour ouvert in French meaning daybreak, began in Trinidad in 1937. Today J'Ouvert is also celebrated in New York as a predawn festival on Carnival day. In keeping with tradition, steel drums are the only forms of music that will be played. Revelers in J'Ouvert wear costumes also, but unlike Carnival day, J'Ouvert costumes are inexpensive and are often creations that mock political issues, celebrities, and prominent events.

thanks guys -- and sorry to double post. my concern was more that someone who knew something wouldn't notice my question amid the other things happening on the lock thread.