New York City / BTS of The 52nd Annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade / October 31, 2025

For Halloween this year, I was so fortunate to get a Press Pass to The 52nd Annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, which happens to be the biggest Halloween parade in the world. Being behind the scenes from start to finish was an absolutely fantastic experience. The creativity of the participants absolutely blew me away and I hope to be able to attend many more times in the future. The theme this year — “It’s a Potluck! Imagine all the people living life in peas. It’s a moveable feast!” Before the parade, all of the artists set up and rehearsed at the starting spot. It was so much fun to get up close to each of them while they were in prep mode. The energy was incredible and unlike anything I have ever felt before. It was hands down one of the best experiences of my entire life. Not only was it empowering, it was intense and fun and insane and chaotic and mind-blowing all at the same time, for five hours….. =O While I am not a photographer who shoots in the dark, I wanted to see what happened and what I could make of it. My goals were to showcase the energy and how it felt to be there vs the close-ups of the artists that I knew every other photographer was going to capture (no way mine would come close to how good those are). Choose to be different. =) Choose to be brave. Choose to do things completely outside of your comfort zone and see how you grow. I love to capture things in my photos that I don’t see in other photos anywhere. I have rarely seen photos of how it feels to be in the thick of it at the parade and the artists INSIDE of the costumes ... . It was also REALLY windy. Think about that when you see some of these costumes and displays and imagine how difficult it was for them to do that for FIVE+ hours walking like 28 blocks….. Let me not forget to mention the group walking on STILTS in WIND for the entire parade. My goodness…. Also….I am pretty sure I heard Abracadabra by Gaga about 50 times and Thriller about the same. So many times that I was actually concerned about it ever getting out of my head. (***Luckily, Taylor Swift came out with her CD a couple days later and everything was fine.) The performers put their entire heart into it for FOUR HOURS (plus at least one while setting up and lining up). They DO NOT STOP. I was curious beforehand if they took breaks, but they basically play the audio clips on repeat for the entire four hour time period walking north through Greenwich Village. Unreal. There are no water breaks for these people. They are ALL IN. That is the spirit of NYC and the most inspiring thing about it to me. Countless photogs had these elaborate lighting and mounting setups, 5 foot selfie-sticks and fancy pants stuff. I found my way in between all of these men and got some shots that I absolutely love. I will remember this forever! I cannot recommend this experience enough to anyone who enjoys this, or doesn’t even care. You will never forget it. ;) Fun Facts: The parade runs from 7 pm - 11 pm. It runs up 6th Avenue from King Street to 15th Street-ish. There are typically more than 50k in costumes for the event and well, a LOT of spectators. This is the 52nd Annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. Event Coverage — #nychalloween #ny1boo or their website at halloween-nyc.com #nyc #nycphotography #halloween #jenniferkoppphotography