Howling winds sent costumes flying at the annual festival in New York. Village Halloween Parade but the eerie procession passed through Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan.
Thousands of people lined Sixth Avenue to stroll and enjoy watching the downtown institution's 52nd annual edition.
The fright fest was attended by the typical ghouls and ghosts, as well as New Yorkers dressed in the spirit of this year's dinner theme. This year's parade marshal was City Harvest, which collects surplus food from restaurants, cafes and bakeries to fight hunger.
“This year's theme is 'dinner,'” said Sunrise Windburn of Brooklyn, who came in the form of a marijuana leaf with the number 420 embroidered on the chest. “I decided to take it a step further. I'm sure people will get it,” Windburn said with a wink.
Kerry Burke/New York Daily News
Jacob Mesa, 9, left, as Son Goku, and Annette Toribio, right, as the New York Cockroach, were among the participants in the village's annual Halloween parade Friday night. (Kerry Burke/New York Daily News)
Other parade participants were dressed as New York horrors. Annette Toribio appeared as a giant cockroach. “I’m a natural New Yorker,” said Toribio, who lives in the Bronx. “It’s a New York theme,” she said. “We have a lot of cockroaches here,” she added, turning around and waving her antennae.
Toribio's husband, who declined to give his name, came dressed as a rat. “Rats: A New York Institute,” he said.
A couple from Astoria, Queens, participated in the transit theme at the village's Halloween parade, with Yaxi Xiao, 29, receiving a MetroCard and Matthew Sanchez, 29, receiving an OMNY card.
“The MetroCard is dying and we had to say goodbye,” Xiao said as she looked at her MetroCard.
“Keeping up with the times,” Sanchez said of his OMNY outfit. “I've been a long-time MetroCard holder, but I needed to stay on top of things—New York is changing.”
“And,” Xiao chimed in, “maybe we’ll even have free buses now.”
Others ditched the theme and came dressed as their favorite characters. “I'm so happy to be here. I wanted to see all the costumes,” said Jacob Mesa, 9, of Queens, who attended the parade with his family. “I am Son Goku,” Mesa said, naming the main character of the Japanese series “Dragon Ball“
Kerry Burke/New York Daily News
Crowds line the sidewalks and rooftops of Sixth Avenue to watch the village's Halloween parade on Friday. (Kerry Burke/New York Daily News)
