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'Wild Thing!' Will Be The Theme Of 2019 Village Halloween Parade
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 23, 2019
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 23, 2019
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Judging by the amount of Halloween-related paraphernalia that has started to dominate the aisles of my local Duane Reade, it seems that Halloween is right around the corner. That means the 2019 Village Halloween Parade is also right around the corner, and the organizers have now announced this year's theme: "Wild Thing!" Disappointingly, it's not an ode to either The Troggs or the classic '80s movie Major League, but rather a general grouping of monsters, beasts and other masked creatures.
I still think that thousands of people dressed up like Reg Presley and Rick Vaughn would make for a sweet event, but alas, it's not the one they're putting on October 31st for the 46th edition of the beloved parade. Here's how they describe the theme on their website:
As long as civilization has defined what it is to be human, humans have harbored a longing for our wild past. In remote villages throughout Europe, the Wild Man persists, as Carnivalesque processions of Kukuri, Wildermann, Pelzmartel, and Schnappviecher to remind us that we can never quite shed our animal DNA. To prepare for battle, Norsemen once donned “the bear shirt” (literally the “ber-serk”) exchanging the mantle of civilization for the potency of their animal past. More often, though, the Wild Thing affirms life over death, celebrating rites of fertility, safeguarding the herds, or simply reminding us to love life’s most basic and visceral gifts. Like vines creeping from beneath the sidewalk cracks, the Wild Thing persists and pushes through our consciousness where and when he can. Fearsome, ribald, and capricious, the he/she/it rekindles for a moment the mixture of fear, awe, and desire that mirrors our complex relationship to nature itself.
The VHP has always been a wild place, but this year we explore the wilder-ness and call on our revelers to put on their bear-shirts, don your horns and antlers, your cloaks of fur and straw. Official puppeteers Superior Concept Monsters will lead the way, summoning a bestiary of towering masked figures inspired by extant wildermann traditions ranging from Sardinia to Siberia.
As ever, anyone in costume can participate in the parade, which runs up 6th Avenue, from Spring St to 16th St., from 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Halloween night. It's free to march, but you can buy tickets to join a Special Theme Section. People who sign up for that are required to wear a Wild Thing Theme costume: "Think Mud Man, Scarecrow, Green Man (or Woman!)"
And since Webster Hall is finally reopened, there will be an after party there—you can buy tickets for that here. Check out photos from last year's parade up above.
One year, I pray they consider using Lou Reed's magnificent, poignant ode "Halloween Parade" as the theme. Think of all the colorful characters you could use as inspiration: five Cinderellas and some leather drags, the boys from Avenue B and the girls from Avenue D, a Tinkerbell in tights, Born Again Losers and the Lavender Boozers, and a girl from Soho with a teeshirt saying "I Blow."
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halloween parade
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village halloween parade
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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