The NYC Village Halloween Parade

The Village Halloween Parade—NYC’s creative and spooky procession—is one of the best Halloween events in Greenwich Village and you won't want to miss it!
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
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.
In its 51st year in 2024, the parade featured over 65,000 participants and 1.5 million spectators. The procession moved on 6th Ave from Canal Street to 15th Street. The theme was meow and celebrated the inner cat lady in everyone. The director of the Village Halloween Parade was Jeanne Fleming. The parade was led by the grand marshal, Tony Award-winning actor André De Shields, best known for his role as