New York's Village Halloween Parade

Village Halloween Parade

Paraders perform zombie dance from Michael Jackson's Thriller video in 2011

Tall rod puppets, a signature of the parade

Papier-mâché masks reflect the evening's atmosphere

A Tusken Raider rides a mammoth-sized Bantha puppet designed by Oliver Dalzell

The Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade held on the night of Halloween, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The parade, initiated on October 31, 1974 by Greenwich Village puppeteer and mask maker Ralph Lee, is the world's largest Halloween parade and the only major nighttime parade in the United States.^[1] The parade reports itself to have 50,000 "costumed participants"^[2] and 2 million spectators.^[3] The parade has its roots in New York's queer community.^[4]

The Village Halloween Parade has been called "New York's Carnival." The parade is largely a spontaneous event as individual marchers can just show up in costume at the starting point without registering or paying anything.^[5][6] The parade's signature features include its large puppets, which are animated by hundreds of volunteers. The official parade theme each year is applied to the puppets.^[7] In addition to the puppets, more than 50 marching bands participate each year. In addition, there are some commercial Halloween parade floats.

The official route, on Sixth Avenue from Spring Street to 16th Street in Manhattan, is 1.4 miles long (the distance from the gathering spot on Sixth Avenue from Canal Street to Spring Street adds another 0.2 miles). The parade usually starts at 7 PM and lasts for about two to three hours.^[8]