Let the Children Play For the Return of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade

The 48th annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade came back with a vengeance after being postponed in 2020 due to Covid19. This New York tradition is one of the best things to do in NY on Halloween. It is the biggest and best Halloween party in the World. This year’s theme focused on the children with a reminder for even the kid in all of us….Let’s Play. With well over 1 million people either marching or watching live, the message resonated all over the parade route on 6th Ave. People were in a great mood to finally have a sense of normalcy after a long and painful haitus because of Covid restrictions. New Yorkers great sense of creativity was on full display with some outrageous and gaudy costumes. Parade and production designer, Jeanne Fleming, has always taken pride in displaying the largest gathering of puppets for any event in the US. The skeleton puppets are a traditional crowd favorite and get the crowd worked up for a wild night of spooks, thrills, and laughs. Kicking things of as always are the good angels coming to give blessings to the viewers along the parade route. Then all hell breaks loose with a parade of skeletons and a marching brass band to get the parade started off on a high note.

This year’s theme was Let’s Play as a reminder that many children had to adapt to the different lifestyle brought down on us from Covid. And for many children, it wasn’t easy to adapt to being isolated from school mates and social surroundings. It turned out to be a great idea to bring back games and play time for children and the kid in all of us. This year’s Grand Marshall was Randy Rainbow because of his bravery and “singing truth to power” and for his funny jokes during some difficult times. There was a really fun children’s float with loud music and people dancing all over the place. There was even a circus themed float but with happy clowns…not the creepy kinds all over the parade route. A perennial favorite is the Samba NY dance and band group. They always get the crowd worked up with their upbeat drumbeat.

Above four photos credit: Aluche Events

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There were a big variety of floats from Krazy Costumes, to the New Witches Brew float to the always popular Thriller dance group with their tribute to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. The crowd went wild when they danced their way up the parade route. Some of the creepiest clowns went along the parade route to scare as many people as they could with lots of success. Different ethnic groups showed up to get in on the fun. The Dominicans and West Indians brought their rhythmic beats and got the crowd jumping. There were plenty of superheroes to be found all over the place. There were so many great costumes but what was even greater was the great Halloween spirit everyone was feeling to make it the best parade of the year. Scare Ya Next Year. New York City Is Back!!!!