New York City - Halloween Parade / World's Biggest / USA / America / Walking Tour / 4K / ASMR

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]

Historical timeline
In 1973, an informal parade of puppets for children was organized by Ralph Lee of the Mettawee River Theatre Company around his residence of artists in the Westbeth Artists Community. The next year, the parade went from Jane Street at the Hudson River to Washington Square Park. About 200 adults and children participated.[9][10] The 1975 parade was produced by the Theatre for the New City[11] (which at the time was in Westbeth). Lee and the Theatre won Obie Award for the production. The 1975 parade grew to 1,500 participants. The new management introduced more adult elements into the event including a Halloween ball after the parade.[12][13][14] Organization of the parade was formally handled by a non-profit organization starting in 1976.[12]

In 1977, the route was changed to 10th Street between Greenwich Avenue to Fifth Avenue and still ending in Washington Square. A devil sat at the top of the Washington Square arch where it released balloons and slid down a wire into the fountain. The year also saw the first appearance of giant spider on the Jefferson Market Library.[12] The parade continued to start at Westbeth until 1983. Two years later, with crowds expanding to 250,000, the route was moved from side streets to Sixth Avenue from Spring Street to 22nd Street (although in practice the gathering point was further south at Canal Street and the northern point would be shortened to 16th Street.[5] The change in route ended the connection to Washington Square Park. Jeanne Fleming became the Artistic and Producing Director.[12]

In 1990, New York University and Manhattan Community Board 2 begin hosting an unrelated Children's Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village in the afternoons in Washington Square.[15] Sophia Michahelles and Alex Kahn become the official designers of the parade's puppets in 1998,[16] and the following year, Basil Twist designed the spider that currently appears on the Jefferson Market Library.[17]

Less than seven weeks after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the parade was broadcast worldwide and was an indication that New York was bouncing back.[18] The parade was led by a giant puppet of a Phoenix rising out of the ashes. Noticeably missing from the parade was Bread and Puppet Theater which had been a political staple of the parade but was protesting the new War in Afghanistan.[19] Earlier the Bread and Puppet contingent consisted of five blocks of its giant puppets.[20] Similarly, less than 8 weeks after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, more than 8,000 storm evacuees attended a funeral procession tribute as part of the parade.[citation needed] In 2010, Haitian Carnival Artist Didier Civil created Haitian carnival figures as a tribute to victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[18]

The parade was cancelled for the first time in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which had heavily damaged coastal New York City and had left Greenwich Village without electricity during the parade time.[18] The next year, a Kickstarter campaign to cover costs of the 2012 closing saved the parade from permanently closing.[18] The campaign raised $56,000, surpassing its goal of $50,000.[21]