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Arts & Entertainment

Halloween Starts This Weekend With Bike Kill, Haunted Warehouse, Dog Costumes & More

By

John Del Signore

Published Oct 23, 2013

Modified Oct 28, 2013

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By

John Del Signore

Published Oct 23, 2013

Modified Oct 28, 2013

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With Halloween falling mid-week this year, things are going to start getting freaky this weekend, so it's high time you dig your sexy Brainy Smurf costume out of the closet and get ready to party/exploit your pet with humiliating costumes for your amusements. Here's what's cooking for pre-Halloween (and here's our guide to NYC haunted houses this year):

Bike Kill: Every year, on the Saturday before Halloween, a strange ritual is carried out behind the Home Depot in Bed-Stuy, where hundreds of individuals gather on a dead-end street to party with a small regiment of weird, retro-fitted bikes. This is Bike Kill, and it will be 10 years old this weekend. Organized by the outlaw Black Label Bike Club, the afternoon-evening block party is all about getting sloppy and testing out the latest advancements in bespoke DIY bike frame technology. Wear a costume, and stick around for the tall bike jousting once darkness falls.

Willoughby Avenue and Sandford Street, Brooklyn

102313party.jpeg
(Tod Seelie)

Warehouse of Horrors: The Bushwick warehouse where The Reflektors (a.k.a. Arcade Fire) performed, and where Bang On! NYC hosted the legendary 3D rave in June, will be home to a haunted rager on Saturday night. Produced by the same crew, the Warehouse of Horrors will feature:

We're also told visitors can expect "Secret Surprise Trick or Treating: You will never guess whats behind the closed doors!!! One door has two beautiful burlesque girls who will engage, tease, and taunt you. One has an old naked man with [REDACTED] who will give a good laugh." So there's that. Tickets for the whole immersive spectacle can be had here.

299 Meserole Street, Brooklyn

Dog Costume Contests: There are at least three dog costume events happening this weekend that we know about. We already told you about the Fort Greene Pupkin event (Gothamist Executive Editor Jen Chung is one of the judges), but you can also coo over adorable costumed dogs in Tompkins Square Park and McCarren Park. The Williamsburg one goes from 1 to 4 p.m. by the dog run, while the legendary East Village contest—now in its 23rd year—takes place at the Tompkins Square dog run from noon to 3 p.m. Be sure to wake up early on Saturday to allow extra time to strap a Heinseberg hat and goatee to your basset hound.

HallowMEME Costume Party: This is actually Thursday night (the 24th) so you'll have to think fast. The Bell House, one of our favorite Brooklyn institutions of inebriation, is once again hosting the HallowMEME costume throwdown. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., costume contest winners get announced at 10, and tickets are FREE with rsvp. Odds are there'll be more than a few Ylvis-inspired foxes, faux nude Mileys, Grumpy Cats, and Jean-Luc Picards stuck in perpetual facepalm; a living, drinking, dancing display of the cogs that keep the Internet machine moving. When you think about it, this could quite possibly turn out to be the most deeply frightening event of the season. (Scott Heins)

149 7th Street, Brooklyn

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bike kill

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John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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