Village Halloween Parade

I am not much for parades and I am not too keen about crowds and I hate being out in the cold and wind. But I had made up my mind to go to the Village Halloween Parade back in April and nothing but freezing rain and sleet would keep me away. We mapped out our bus ride perfectly to arrive at 14th and 6th Avenue in time to grab a bite and get to the barricades before the big crowds set in. This was the 38th annual parade and it has grown to over 50,000 participants and they say two million viewers but I don’t think there was more than one million this year. The parade is about a mile long starting below Houston and going straight north on 6th Avenue to 23rd Street.

That is a little dog skeleton there.

Go to my picasa page to see the rest of my photos.

I saw a whole block of zombies, another block of characters from Rocky Horror dancing non-stop to “Time Warp”, giant skeleton puppets flying in the air, several Edward Scissorshands, Rescued Chilean Miners, countless Marie Antoinettes, Barbie dolls in boxes, comic book characters, lots of Gagas, costumed babies and dogs, and so much more.

It was in the low 40s and pretty breezy so after a couple of hours I decided to head back home. I headed over to 8th Avenue at about 9:30 and the sidewalks of the Village were packed with costumed partiers going from bar to bar. My bus came right away and it felt great to be inside with the heat blasting. I felt like I was in some weird horror movie as I looked at all the zombies and ghouls and monsters who were populating all of Manhattan as I was passing by in the safety of my bus.

I have read that it is said that this is on a list of 100 things to do before you die. Done.