Thousands of people descended upon lower Sixth Avenue last night for the 42nd annual Village Halloween Parade. Lasting well over three hours and featuring dozens of mobile dance parties doubling as floats, raucous marching bands, crazy giant puppets, and approximately 60,000 often-outlandishly costumed revelers strolling, dancing, lurching, running, roller blading, and driving in amazing little cars along the mile-long route, the parade is thought to be the largest such celebration in the world.
Scott Lynch / Gothamist
The weather was perfect, the atmosphere festive, the costumes usually handmade and often pretty incredible. As expected, there were a number of takes on such creepy things as Donald Trump and Pizza Rat; characters from all over the Stars Wars saga were amply represented; anything that could be zombie-fied, was; Frida Kahlo was spotted more often than you might have guessed; and there were a number of really random mask-and-outfit pairings.
Scott Lynch / Gothamist
So maybe it's not as raunchy as it once was, nor as politically-charged. But unlike many of the city's massive parades these days there's still virtually no corporate presence here, and no crappy branded swag handed out en route. Just a bunch of dangerous-looking freaks, some silly conceptual jokes, a few sexy Roman soldiers and pirates and the like, and, if you choose your place in the parade unwisely, a whole lot of Thriller, again and again and again.
