DirtyDreamz partied the night away.
BROOKLYN -- A New Jersey dance group was among thousands of people who partied and paraded the night away at an NYC festival that made headlines for turning bloody.
Starting around 3 a.m. Monday morning, DirtyDreamz, from East Orange, was part of the crowd that marched at the J'Ouvert Festival in Brooklyn, N.Y. The group gathered with the band Steel XPlosion USA to celebrate with dancing and steel drums until about 10 a.m. The group coordinated their actions and dress, which members said was to reflect the theme "darkness of light."
J'Ouvert is a prequel to the West Indian American Day Parade & Carnival, which started at 11 a.m. Monday, and generally attracts close to 2 million people.
J'Ouvert's origins come from Trinidad. The ceremony is celebrated throughout the Caribbean, and also in other major American cities like Boston and Miami.
This year's Brooklyn celebration was marred by violence.
According to reports, a man was stabbed to death and four others were wounded during the event. A lawyer who works for NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Carey Gabay, 43, was shot in the head on Bedford Ave. and Sullivan Pl. in Crown Heights during the festival, reports said.
According to CNN, Gabay is in critical condition.
Aristide Economopoulos can be reached at aeconomopoulos@njadvancemedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @AristideNJAM and Instagram Find NJ.com on Facebook