Screaming winds sent costumes fluttering at the annual New York City Village Halloween Parade but the spooky procession marched on through Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan.
Thousands turned out along Sixth Ave. to strut in and enjoy watching the Downtown institution’s 52nd annual installment.
The typical ghouls and ghosts turned out for the fright fest, along with New Yorkers dressed up with a nod to this year’s “potluck” theme. The parade marshal this year was City Harvest, which collects surplus food from restaurants, cafes and bakeries to address hunger.
“The theme this year is ‘potluck,’ said Sunrise Windburn, of Brooklyn, who came as a marijuana leaf, with “420” emblazoned across her chest. “I’ve decided to take it a step further. I’m sure people will figure it out,” Windburn said with a wink.
Kerry Burke / New York Daily News
Jacob Mesa, 9 (left), as Son Goku, and Annette Toribio (right) as a New York staple, a cockroach, were among the participants at the annual Village Halloween Parade on Friday night. (Kerry Burke / New York Daily News)
Other paradegoers dressed as NYC-specific terrors. Annette Toribio came as a giant cockroach. “I’m a born-and-bred New Yorker,” said Toribio, who lives in the Bronx. “This is a New York theme,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of roaches here,” she added, spinning around, her antennae waving.
Toribio’s husband, who declined to give his name, came dressed as a rat. “Rats: a New York institution,” he said.
A couple from Astoria, Queens, rolled with a transit theme at the Village Halloween Parade, with Yaxi Xiao, 29, coming as a MetroCard and Mathew Sanchez, 29, an OMNY card.
“The MetroCard is dying and we had to say goodbye,” Xiao said, as she peeked through her swiping MetroCard.
“Getting with the times,” Sanchez said of his OMNY getup. “I was a longtime MetroCard holder but I had to stay current — New York is changing.”
“And,” Xiao interjected, “maybe now we’ll even have free buses.”
Others threw theme-dressing to the wind, and came as their favorite characters. “I’m so glad to be here. I wanted to see all the costumes,” said Jacob Mesa, 9, of Queens, who attended the parade with his family. “I’m 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 along Sixth Ave. to watch the Village Halloween Parade on Friday. (Kerry Burke / New York Daily News)
