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A blue girl dances at the Village Halloween Parade
Bring out the greasepaint and dust off your ruby slippers. It’s time to get ready for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. This year will be the 35th outing (so to speak) for this New York institution.
On Friday, October 31 more than 60,000 costumed revelers are expected to march up Sixth Avenue from Spring to 21st Street. About two million spectators will be watching.
Planned your costume yet? If not—and if you want to march—you better get started. Only costumed people are allowed to take part in the parade. All others will stand behind the barricades watching—not such a bad fate either!
The now-famous event began in 1974 when Ralph Lee, a Greenwich Village puppeteer, organized a free-flowing street theater event with the help of Theater for the New City. Masked characters and creatures materialized on balconies, rooftops and fire escapes along the parade route, which wound through the West Village from the Hudson to Washington Square. Within several years, thousands of New Yorkers were participating. By 1985, the parade had grown so huge that the narrow streets could no longer contain it and the police department rerouted it up Sixth Avenue.
These days, people come from all over, and many wear costumes they’ve spent months creating. You’re likely to see marching bands, stilt-walkers, clowns, jugglers, drag queens and break dancers.
Most amazing of all are the gigantic masks and puppets that loom over the crowds. Most of these puppets are designed by a group called Superior Concept Monsters and built at their workshop near Rhinebeck, New York. Volunteers are invited to visit the studio to help build the puppets during the weekends leading up to Halloween.
Before heading to Sixth Avenue for the parade, be sure to check out the Village Halloween Parade’s website for the inside scoop. There you’ll find information about transportation and meeting places.
For uptown folks—and others reluctant to brave the crowds in the Village—the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at 112 Street and Amsterdam Avenue is hosting a silent film screening of The Phantom of the Opera with live organ accompaniment. The movie will be followed by the Procession of the Ghouls, featuring giant spooky puppets built by Ralph Lee, the puppeteer who started it all in the Village, 34 years ago. “Phantom of the Opera” screenings will take place at 7 pm and 10 pm, and the procession follows immediately after. Tickets are $15.
After the events of the last few weeks, it will be a relief to forget about the truly scary people on Wall Street and savor the more transitory terrors of ghosts and witches. Happy spooking!
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