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New Yorkers, start stretching. The Village Halloween Parade is returning on Saturday, October 31, and its newly announced theme gives you permission to show a little skin, bare your bones or dance like nobody’s watching. This year, it’s “Body & Soul.”
The theme for the parade’s 53rd edition is about the connection between our physical selves and the spirits we carry around in them. Artistic and producing director Jeanne Fleming points to the skeletons that traditionally lead the procession: even those wandering souls need bones if they’re going to dance up Sixth Avenue. In a world where so much of our lives happens through screens, the organizers want Halloween night to bring everybody back into their bodies.
For costume purposes, that leaves plenty of room to play. You could go anatomical, supernatural or full dance-floor diva. Fleming also suggests bringing someone who has died back to life through costume and performance, with a playful invitation to Dolly and a nod to the Time Warp. (Whether that means a painstaking tribute or a skeleton in platform boots is up to you.)
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The parade’s giant puppets will even take their own spin on the theme. Official puppetmakers Processional Arts Workshop say they’re preparing luminous spirits and dancing skeletons inspired by the Day of the Dead. Expect them alongside more than 50 bands, dancers, artists and thousands of New Yorkers whose costumes may require a brief explanation and several feet of clearance.
The procession starts at 7pm at Canal Street and travels north on Sixth Avenue to 15th Street. Want to march? Anyone in costume can join for free by entering the lineup at Canal Street and Sixth Avenue between 6:30pm and 9pm. Those festive get-ups are required: spectators in street clothes cannot enter the route. Organizers release marchers in timed groups, so prepare to wait and arrange to meet friends before reaching the crowded lineup.
Watching is free, too. Spectators can find a spot along Sixth Avenue between King Street and West 15th Street; the stretch from Bleecker to 14th Street tends to be especially crowded. The parade is expected to run until about 11pm and Spectrum News NY1 will carry it live beginning at 8pm.
You have six weeks to decide what “Body & Soul” means to you—the clock starts now.