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Event
Information: Latest:
New
York's Village Halloween Parade is
an annual holiday parade and street
pageant presented the night of every
Halloween (October 31) in New York
City’s Greenwich Village. Stretching
more than a mile, this cultural
event draws two million spectators,
fifty thousand costumed
participants, dancers, artists and
circus performers, dozens of floats
bearing live bands and other musical
and performing acts, and a
world-wide television audience of
one hundred million.
Among
the parade's signature features are
its pageant sized puppets - giant
rod puppets "articulated" by teams
of puppeteers - and its open
participation to anyone in a costume
who wishes to march. It is the
largest public Halloween event in
the United States, and the country's
only major night parade. It has been
called "New York's Carnival."
Although the parade is currently not
as informal and wild as it was in
its earliest years, it is in effect
still an alternative festival.
The
parade has been featured in many
national magazines and travel
guides, and has been a subject of
study by leading cultural
anthropologists. According to The
New York Times, "the Halloween
Parade is the best entertainment the
people of this City ever give the
people of this City." "Absolutely
anything goes," says USA Today. "Be
prepared to drop your jaw."
Each
year, a parade theme is selected by
Fleming and VHP official puppet
artists Alex Kahn and Sophia
Michahelles as the basis for an
anchoring performance at the head of
the parade, and as a suggestion to
inspire individual marchers
throughout its course. The theme
draws upon extensive research into
the symbolic language and meanings
underlying celebrations and rituals.
The notion of Halloween as a night
of transformation is often reflected
in the themes, as well as ideas of
self-expression and community.
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