It's never a party unless the neighbours are invited and this weekend's Caribana festivities were no exception.
An estimated 47 per cent of the more than one million tourists in Toronto on the weekend were visiting from the United States, and most were basking in the bold colour and beautiful weather at this weekend's parade and Olympic Island celebrations.
"I used to go to New York's parade every year until I came here last year," said Pam Murray, who turned 40 on Saturday and flew in from New Jersey.
"The costumes, the energy, I love it. And it's clean," said Ms. Murray, who was decked out in star-spangled garb from head to toe.
Others, such as Merrilyn Langford of Toledo, Ohio, drove in earlier last week to beat the traffic at the Canada-U.S. border.
"It's a five-hour drive, so it's not too bad. We've been coming here for 35 years and the bands get better every year."
Even though Ms. Langford avoided traffic headaches, the wait to cross the border was long.
At Niagara Falls, tourists driving to Canada had to wait 30 to 45 minutes at Canada Customs, said a spokesman for the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission in Buffalo, which manages the Lewiston-Queenston and Rainbow bridges.
"We don't have an event in the States such as Caribana," said Brent Gallaugher, manager of agency relations and security.
"Because the August long weekend is one of our busiest weekends for traffic for coming into Canada, Caribana obviously adds to that traffic."
Mr. Gallaugher, who mostly saw vehicles arriving from New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as a few from Florida, estimated there was 12- to 15-per-cent more traffic than on a regular weekend.
"It's busy. There's no two ways about it."
A spokeswoman for the Canadian Border Services Agency said that although the agency had maximized its resources for the weekend, there was no way of avoiding traffic headaches.
"Just like it's busy at 5 o'clock on the highway, it's busy on a holiday weekend. If it's not Caribana, it'll be something else," said Jean D'Amelio Swyer.
But traffic was the last thing on Kevin Tanner's mind.
Mr. Tanner, 18, hails from Trinidad -- home of Carnival, the largest Caribbean festival in the world -- and has been to almost every one in North America.
"[Washington,]D.C., Baltimore, Miami, New York, Chicago, L.A.and back home. I've been going since I was really young," he said. "Nothing compares to Trinidad, but Caribana definitely comes in second," Mr. Tanner said.
Other revellers such as Karen Lewis, 22, said New York City's West Indian American Day parade on Labour Day is a whole different scene from Toronto's event.
"Instead of seeing floats, you see people," Ms. Lewis said.
The Brooklyn parade boasts a history almost as long as Caribana's. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets last year.
On the West Coast, Los Angeles claims bragging rights when partygoers flaunt skin at its mid-October Caribbean festival, Caricabela.
That week-long celebration, which coincides with the city's Caribbean Heritage Week and which draws about 15,000 people, features a celebrity ribbon-cutting ceremony, calypso competitions, a parade and a band competition.
"It's really just to celebrate Caribbean heritage here in the western United States," Caricabela founder Marie Kellier said.
She added that although Los Angeles's festival doesn't come close to Caribana yet, she has high hopes for it.
"I have a friend who was supposed to take our flyers up to Caribana."