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.

Last night was the annual Village Halloween Parade, and I’m absolutely exhausted. This was the first time I went in with a press pass, along with several photographer friends. It was very exiting to be IN the parade and not have to jockey for a viewing position. Paraders took everyone with a camera seriously and readily obliged to pose when asked.

This parade is one of the largest in NYC and the country, with an estimated 1,000,000 people attending – it’s incredibly congested for viewers. I have over 300 photos to go through, so I will do a complete post on this tomorrow. Here is a link to my Flickr site for more photos.