
Hundreds of individuals and pups alike eagerly flooded a blocked-off Avenue A in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, October 19, for what has turn into one of many metropolis’s most anticipated occasions: the Tompkins Sq. Halloween Canine Parade.
Now in its thirty fourth yr, the parade was as chaotic because it was celebratory. The costume contest on the massive stage was nixed and the procession, gone as shortly because it got here, came about on the streets as a consequence of park renovations.
Succumbing to its personal explosion in reputation, the occasion has been organized by canine lover Joseph Borduin since 2020. Borduin introduced that this was his final yr orchestrating the parade in an interview with the Gothamist final week, stating that he wants “one other, greater entity to take over this beast as a result of it’s simply an excessive amount of for a small canine park to deal with.” Based on Borduin, town imposes varied bureaucratic hurdles for acquiring permits to host the favored occasion.
With a scarcity of readability and restricted communications from the park’s Canine Run, attendees and contributors alike had been left at nighttime relating to the parade — some complained of normal disgroup whereas others stated they’d simply present up and hope for the perfect within the feedback part of the terse announcement put up on Instagram. However, the present went on with an exceptionally enthusiastic turnout, irate law enforcement officials, and an egregious quantity of cuteness and creativity from the canine and their people (respectively).
With out additional ado, we current a number of the highlights from the parade and its aftermath:

Sid Henderson, agent and father to Instagram-famous pug-fluencer Kuma, instructed Hyperallergic that the pair seems to be ahead to the Halloween Canine Parade yearly. Kuma was an actual crowd-pleaser as he sauntered down the open streets to cheers and “awwws,” and donned his costume because the balloon-powered home from the Disney animated film Up (2009). At one level, Henderson lifted Kuma into the air as if he was floating away, yielding shrieks of pleasure and whistles from the gang.
In the meantime, Roxy the doodle embodied Kentucky Fried Hen’s “Finger Lickin’ Good” slogan by gently licking my hand … Go determine!



Seated in a foldable sporting chair on the sidelines of the procession, Chacha the chihuahua jack-o’-lantern stayed in his consolation zone: his mom Alina’s lap. Although they’d enjoyable, Alina stated the parade was “tremendous complicated and disorganized” this yr in comparison with the final iteration.
“The best way the wristbands had been handed out was very complicated,” she reiterated. “There have been solely, like, 600 for all of the canine … There’s undoubtedly greater than 600 canine right here, doing the parade anyhow. I don’t actually perceive how that is occurring this yr.”
To Alina’s level, even I used to be capable of entry the parade path with out being requested to provide a wristband or perhaps a canine.





Joel, Jared, and Waffle got here as Toyotathon this yr! The gang went loopy for the trio as the 2 inflatable males wagged their arms down the parade path. Not pictured is the automobile’s vainness plate that merely learn “WAFFLE.”





Although they got here individually for his or her first time on the parade, Santi the bumble bee and Chloe the ladybug matched one another’s docile vitality. Chloe’s mother, Min, stated that although they missed the procession, “it’s been a lot enjoyable and [they] can’t look ahead to subsequent yr.”




Colby Levin stated that she and her pug-turned-croissant Olive have been coming to the Halloween Parade for years.
Whether or not anybody steps as much as the plate to arrange the thirty fifth iteration of the Halloween Canine Parade stays to be seen, so we should savor each reminiscence of this magnificent celebration, as it’d simply be the final!




