Forgive me if I am overly enthusiastic, but the Village Halloween Parade is really one of the world's greatest street pageants. It was started in 1973 by maskmaker and puppeteer Ralph Lee as an informal wandering street show in Greenwich Village. In the 8th year, after the parade's growth to an audience of 100,000, Jeanne Fleming, a long time participant, took over the event. Described as "wildly creative," the parade is truly one of the largest pageants of creative, imaginative, bizarre and well crafted costumes, props and floats one can hope to see. And in a community like this in NYC, anything goes. The costumes can be ghoulish, macabre, gothic, scary, risque, exotic, erotic, comical, irreverent, political, clever, or brilliant and there's plenty of regular stuff too. Read a history and other facts at the parade's website here. For an excellent overview of the parade, click here. The event draws 50,000 participants and 1-2 million spectators. It is now covered worldwide by television and other media; it has won numerous accolades, awards and grants. The best way to see the parade? - join it. Anyone can and with a little advanced prep, you can be part of the spectacle and have one of the best seats in the house ...NOTE: I attended as photographer with a press pass along with a few photographer friends. I took over 300 photos - here is a link to my Flickr site for more photos.
7 comments:
Where's the media? Never heard of it, but I can view the Thanksgiving Day Parade and St. Patrick's Day parade whether I want to or not if I have the tube on. Waiting for the rest, and I'm sure they'll be good shots!
Told you I'd be back! Was it not a bit chilly to be wearing some of those skimpy outfits?
Curly's Photoshop
We had the most beautiful weather - it was warm enough for those wearing little or virtually no clothing.
New York 1 covers it - outside of New York, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's a little too "arty" or risque for many stations.
Brian
Brought back many memories. I have not been to the Village Halloween Parade in 22 or so years. Thanks!
These are great....thanks for the history of the parade!
hi there! the pictures look awesome! i was wondering if i could avail a copy of a picture you took of us (we were the 2 girls wearing the metrocard outfits...) you gave us your card that night, however, you only posted 41 pictures here...so...PLEASE! so i can show my mom in texas how much fun im having here in the city! YAY!
oh yeah its me again...the metrocard girl...my email is hudahelaryu@aol.com thanks!
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