The 50th annual Village Halloween Parade turns 50: Your guide to this year’s festivities

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take over the streets of Greenwich Village for a Halloween celebration like no other — as one of New York City’s favorite traditions turns 50.

Every year New Yorkers and their friends have a chance to become their most authentic silly selves in a celebration of life, creativity and imagination at the world-famous Village Halloween Parade. This year, they won’t be alone.

To mark the parade’s half-century existence, “all the spirits of the last 50 years will be asked to walk with us,” longtime director Jeanne Fleming told the Daily News.

This year’s parade will not only celebrate its rich, half-century history. It will also “pay tribute to those lost to various events like 9/11, AIDS, and COVID, as well as those who have been part of the parade throughout the years.”

Here’s how you can take part in this out-of-this-world anniversary celebration. Happy boo-day!

What is the Village Halloween Parade?

For the past five decades, New York City’s beloved spooky procession has brought the living, the undead, and everyone in between to lower Manhattan for the nation’s largest public Halloween celebration. The Village Halloween Parade began as an informal parade of puppets organized by the late mask-maker and puppeteer Ralph Lee in 1973. It has since turned into an enduring tradition with around 70,000 participants and 2 million spectators, according to organizers.

What should I expect?

The parade starts at 7 p.m. and runs from Spring St. to 15th St. along Sixth Ave. Everyone is invited to participate in this free and fabulously frightful event. Costumes are required to march, but those dressed in non-Haloween attire are welcome to watch from the sidelines.

To skip general public lines, several VIP ticket options are available starting at $100. That includes a private entrance to the band lineup area, a secret entry point for early admission, a front-row seat in a tall director’s chair, and even a chance to march alongside Fleming as she leads the parade. VIP ticket sales help organizers “keep the Village Halloween Parade going.”

Who’s providing the entertainment?

Besides the usual mind-blowing costumes, dozens of marching bands, as well as hundreds of giant dancing skeleton puppets — a parade tradition — will take the Halloween spirit to another level.

Leading the parade this year is the famed New Orleans-based group Young Fellaz Brass Band, who will bring the Big Easy to Manhattan “in the tradition of New Orleans funeral marches.”

What is this year’s theme?

The theme for the 2023 parade, “Upside Down/Inside Out,” reflects New Yorkers’ return to a “new normalcy,” capping off a series of very abnormal years, Fleming said. “It will be illustrated by Processional Arts Workshop’s giant puppet piece, ‘Mirror Mirror.'”

Who is this year’s grand marshal?

In typical life-meets-afterlife Halloween spirit, two groundbreaking artists were named grand marshals this year: Grammy winner and multi-hyphenate artist Laurie Anderson “whose work in New York City expresses the changes in downtown theater and art over the past 50 years” and her late husband, rock royalty and Brooklyn-born legend Lou Reed, who died 10 Halloweens ago in East Hampton at the age of 71.

“I’m thrilled to serve as Grand Marshall along with the spirit of my husband Lou Reed. We’ll be playing his song ‘Halloween Parade,’ at top volume,” Anderson told The News. “He wrote this for the many beautiful queens who appeared in the parade.”

The song, from Reed’s 1989 critically acclaimed album “New York,” is a poignant and bittersweet ode to the Village parade and a celebration of the many LGBTQ lives lost to the AIDS epidemic. Over the years, the song has become the unofficial anthem of the event.

Where can I join the parade?

Line-up begins at 6:30 p.m. on Sixth Ave. between Spring and Broome streets. Getting to the entry point will only be possible from the east or south as several road closures will make food traffic tricky. People can join the line-up coming north from Canal, or coming east from Sullivan or Broome streets.

What are the best places to watch it?

The parade can be viewed from either side of Sixth Ave. between King St. and West 15th. However the avenue fills up early, so be sure to arrive there no later than 5 p.m. to secure a prime spot. New Yorkers who prefer to watch it from home, NY1 will broadcast it live from 8 to 9:30 p.m.

Security is expected to be tight, given the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. While the NYPD didn’t say how many officers it would deploy, some 2,000 cops — both in uniform and in plain clothes — are expected to be in the area. Police dogs trained in explosive detection will also be on patrol, a police source told The News.

How can I keep the party going?

In hell — Webster Hell, that is. Legendary downtown club Webster Hall transforms itself into a Halloween paradise for the parade’s official afterparty for those aged 18 and older. Doors open at 9 p.m., and a costume contest from hell starts at midnight — giving one super creative partygoer a chance to go home with a $5,000 cash prize. Hell, yeah!