About 80,000 costumed New Yorkers marched along Sixth Avenue from Canal Street to 15th Street on Halloween night for the 52nd Village Halloween Parade, this year with the theme “It’s a Potluck!” The parade was planned in conjunction with local food rescue organization City Harvest — and aimed to unite attendees through their food-themed costumes.

Some paradegoers followed the potluck directive closely, costuming themselves as tacos, chefs, five-tiered cakes and even a picnic blanket. Most others went more classically Halloween, dressing as vampires, pirates and a size-accurate version of Lady Gaga’s massive Coachella gown. The parade as a whole gathered roughly 2 million viewers online.

First held in 1973, the Village Parade has become a cultural fixture in the city, embraced by families, artists and members of the queer community as a home. Jeanne Fleming, who has served as the parade’s artistic and producing director for 45 years, said she takes pride in how the parade is a space that welcomes and nurtures all attendees. 

“It’s a time away from all of the worries and concerns, where everyone is together in this thing,” Fleming said. “You know, you can’t be a performer without an audience. So everybody counts.”

When deciding the parade’s theme, Fleming aimed to read the tenor of the national and political environment. 

“What we began to think about is that the parade feeds the soul and the heart and the imagination and the spirit,” Fleming said. “But when we made City Harvest our grand marshal, they feed the body.”

She added that a number of issues, including the famine in Gaza and the fragility of SNAP benefits in the United States, sparked the initial idea for a parade theme about food. Fleming also thought about the driving role food plays in her own life, as something that catalyzes connection and eases conflict. 

“What was the thing that brought people together since the beginning of time?” Fleming said. “Sharing a meal, breaking bread together, passing a bowl.”

Leading the parade was Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur Simon Kim, dressed up as a piece of fried chicken — a nod to his restaurant Coqodaq in Flatiron. Kim serves as a member of City Harvest’s board and food council, and was joined in the parade by fellow members from the organization. City Harvest also hosted a food drive as part of its decadeslong effort to combat local food waste and insecurity.

“As a restaurateur, I love bringing people together to celebrate and enjoy life’s special moments,” Kim said in a press release. “This year’s parade theme, ‘It’s a Potluck,’ shows everyone should have a seat at the table and access to high-quality, nutritious food.”

Following City Harvest was a stream of eye-catching participants, including long-time parade partner Processional Arts Workshop, which creates giant puppets to match each year’s theme. This year, the puppets — abstract gray figures — were meant to represent the stranger: the unknown guest at a potluck, who are still “welcome to the table,” according to workshop member Alexandre de Suze. To act this out, what started off as giant prop doors carried by the workshop were opened like pop-up books, presenting strangers with a glowing feast of food. 

Members of Batalá New York — an all-women and Black-led percussion ensemble — were also a crowd favorite with their matching strawberry costumes, a choice that member Melissa McIntyre said resonated with both the parade’s theme and the group’s identity.

“[Part of] the theme for the parade was ‘imagine all the people,’ so we were imagining strawberry fields,” McIntyre said. “Unity and peace, and welcoming everyone. Considering we’re a Black-led, Afro-Brazilian, intercultural group, we thought that was very important.”

The parade garnered more participants as the night carried on, building momentum even as strong winds whipped hair and costume components around and pedestrian traffic jams built up near barricades. After passing by Washington Square Park and through Greenwich Village, the parade came to an end on Sixth Avenue and 15th Street — and if it had any of its intended effect, that sense of community might just last all year.

“If ever there’s a time we should be bringing people together if we can, it’s right now,” de Suze said.

Contact Shrish Bulusu at [email protected].