Skeleton Puppet Kicks off the Halloween parade
After Sandy knocked out last year’s annual Village Halloween Parade, more than a million people came out in costume to make it one of the best parades of the year. Known to be the largest Halloween party in the country and I guess the planet since the US is the largest country that celebrates Halloween, New Yorkers once again showed off why they are the most creative and inventive people around. The parade route on 6th Ave from Spring to 16th Sts. was jammed wall to wall with revelers waiting for the parade to kick off. It felt like New Year’s Eve at Times Square. The mounted police signaled the start of the parade and as usual many blessings were given by the angelic fairies and their pixie dust spread over all the revelers. Brass band music was the soundtrack for hundreds of skeleton, bat and pumpkin puppets mixing it up with crowd and getting them ready for what would be an amazing night of costume, music , dance and lots of fright and danger lurking in every horde of people walking up 6th Ave. Everyone got a kick out the velociraptor costume..not the cheap raptor costume..the real deal. The first of a few samba bands came up and really got the crowd worked up. The samba girls were working it.
Velociraptor looking for a snack
Samba dancers having fun
Looking for the next adventure
A NY favorite Hungry March Band kept the energy level on high. A slew of creepy killer clowns were slicing their way through the crowd. Good thing they didn’t get to the lady in body art. Another samba drum band came by with one of the scariest costumes at the parade. NY clubs compete for the after parade crowd and Webster Hall had one of the better floats with their sexy caged dancers teasing the crowd. One of the most anticipated parts of the parade did not disappoint. The Thriller group put on a nice show for everyone. They were soon followed by an impressive tribute to Michael Jackson. The first of a few cars drove up after the marshmallow man was seen being chased by the Ghostbusters. Everyone got a kick out of not one but two batmobiles and Batman out to nab his foes.
Crazy body art
Beast in chains
One batmobile
Second Batmobile
Of course a parade isn’t a parade without a marching band and the first one was the cool band from Princeton. Some folks were a little disturbed by the mystical children chomping on some human limbs. Friends getting dressed up as groups are always the best and one of the most impressive was the group as X-Men. They had it down to a tee. Another marching band that really had some fun at the parade were the Royal Knights Marching Band. But the samba band that followed them really got the most attention with some sizzling hot dancers getting the crowd all worked up. A herd of zombies that could have easily been cast in The Walking Dead made their way up the parade route. Even Wendy Williams showed up asking everyone how they were doing..yeah she was scary. After the parade was over, revelers were having impromptu celebrations of the side streets with plenty of photo ops. Walking away to the PATH station, it was clear the Village Halloween Parade is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack and better than ever.
It was a hell of a ride..scare ya later
NYC Parade Life 