Photo: A parade participant marchers in a costume of feathers during the West Indian Day Parade in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

The party is coming to your living room.

That's if you're one of the estimated millions of revelers that turn out each year to march in the parade on Labor Day - an explosion of color and music celebrating Caribbean heritage along Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway. This year, parade organizers and lawmakers are asking that you celebrate from home.

"You can expect the same festivity, the same energy, that vibrancy that is typically associated with the feel of carnival," said Shyka Scotland, general member of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association.

The group has organized a series of virtual events over the weekend that are meant to recreate the feel and look of the parade from the safety of home. Zoom parties will be held - costume required if you want to be featured - and local lawmakers, including Council member Laurie Cumbo and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, are already in the spirit.

"I'm at home trying on past costumes that I wore in years before, and I'm having a good time," Cumbo said.

"So many beautiful colors along the Caribbean, and everybody comes out and celebrates as one," Williams said. "It's an entire weekend of celebration, and it will be missed."

The parade energy will be difficult to recreate, but lawmakers are reminding New Yorkers of the dangers of gathering. The pandemic is still not over.

"The fact is, the city is going through a rough time and the foreseeable future may be tough, but if we all do what we can with where we are, I really believe we are going to get through this," Williams said.

Looming in the air are also concerns over the ongoing uptick in gun violence. Central Brooklyn has seen a significant spike, and the NYPD will be out in force over the weekend.

"I am concerned this weekend, as I have been the entire summer," Cumbo said.

J'ouvert, the predawn celebration before the parade, is also canceled. Meant to commemorate newfound freedom and the emancipation slaves, the event is taking new meaning this year.

"It's really such a beautiful display of our heritage, of our fight to maintain who we are, what we've experienced, and that we're still shining and that we're thriving," Cumbo said.