Dancers in sequined bikinis and headdresses adorned with feather tiaras are expected to gather on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn starting at 11 a.m. Monday for the annual West Indian Day Parade, the culmination of a week of events celebrating Caribbean culture, music and history.

The parade is one of the most spirited in New York, featuring elaborate costumes and thundering trucks blaring Caribbean pop music loved by some 500,000 New Yorkers of non-Hispanic Caribbean descent.

According to organizer Anne Rhea Smith, first vice president of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, more than a million people are expected to participate in the parade and related events.

“Every group that performs easily has 500 to 1,500 people,” she said in a phone interview. “And we have some wonderful Haitian-American groups that come to the Parkway and they easily have 4,000 to 5,000 people.”

What is the West Indian Day Parade?

The parade is a cultural celebration, a dance party and a competition to see who has the most beautiful masquerade costumes. The parade participant groups – known as Mas Bands, short for Masquerade – are judged according to the rules and regulations of Trinidad and Tobago, the traditional home of Carnival.

“The judges judge on the theme, so how you match your theme with the costume and the presentation,” Smith said. “They also match it to the energy of the presentation, how the masked people work together to really engage the audience and showcase their heritage.”

When does the parade start?

Officially, the West Indian Day Parade takes place on Mondays from 11am to 6pm, but the parade is the grand finale of a week of events that also include Steel Panorama and J’Ouvert.

Panorama is a steel drum competition in which eight to ten pan orchestras compete against each other in front of the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday at 7 p.m.

J’Ouvert, French for “daybreak,” is an early-morning bacchanalian festival of paint and mud.

What is the parade route?

The parade begins at Lincoln Terrace Park in Crown Heights and moves west along Eastern Parkway, culminating in a presentation in front of the Brooklyn Museum.

What can participants expect?

Spectators are welcome to line the street, but only revelers registered with a Mas Band and wearing wristbands will be allowed to party on the street. Police and private security guards will stop everyone else.

“It’s fun – it’s safe and entertaining,” Smith said. “We have security measures in place. We work with the NYPD, we work with a lot of our crime prevention groups so we can keep the Parkway safe for everyone.”