Written by: Albert Terc
One of the best parades in NYC is the Village Halloween Parade on 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village. This year well over a million people came out on a windy Friday night to join in the largest Halloween party in the world. The theme this year was Potluck, the best of foods. It honors this years Grand Marshall City Harvest, a not for profit groups that collects food from restaurants and distributes it among the Five Boroughs. Creative Director, Jeanne Fleming, always gets her crew of puppet masters ready for the grand event. There are puppet skeletons and other frightful puppets that get the huge crowd ready for a wild and scary time.
The Halloween Parade has plenty of live band music with big brass sounds and marchers dressed in food themed costume. This year the Hungry March Band had the honor of kicking things off with some lively music and dancers. Clearly they were famished. Feisty skeleton puppets greeted the massive crowd lined up along the parade route on 6th Avenue from King to 15th streets. The best thing to do as a reveler is to get there early so you’re watching from the railing. The frightful marchers that know what the parade is about look for people they can scare enough to make them scream. And I heard lots of screams from the crowd. Marchers wear some of the most imaginative costumes around. This is where you can witness NY creativity at it’s scary or not so scary best.
There was more live music than in previous years which makes for great energy to keep the biggest Halloween party going well into the end. There are always perennial favorites in this parade including probably the largest Michael Jackson’s Thriller tribute ever. They are the best to watch. Michael’s dance moves will live on for a long time. Another favorite group changes their tune every year but get the crowd fired up. The Tailshakers strut their stuff with passion each year at the Halloween parade. Next to the Thanksgiving Parade, the Halloween parade has the best floats out there. This year La Fortaleza with their outstanding Katrina costumes and Kostume Kult with their always inventive costumes took high honors among the million plus crowd. Once the parade is over, the spookiness keeps going in bars and restaurants and in the streets of Greenwich Village way into the depths of the creepy night. One of the best parts of the parade is sharing these photos. Hope you enjoy them as much as I had taking them.
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Collage photo credit: Joaquin Terc
Photo Credit Below: Albert Terc
NYC Parade Life 