Tompkins Square Dog Halloween Parade
If the sight of dogs dressed up in clothes makes you shake your head in disgust at the way people torture their pets, better visit Snackish another day. Because I just got back from the Halloween Dog Parade, and I can’t keep these costumes to myself.
The Tompkins Square Dog Halloween parade and costume contest is, according to Wikipedia, the largest dog Halloween party in the US. Think of it as Comicon, or South by Southwest for folks who like to dress up their pets. Usually held the Saturday before Halloween, the parade was once again rescheduled for Sunday due to rain. Fortunately Sunday was about as warm and bright as October can deliver.
Onto the costumes. I’ve narrowed my favorites of the day down to a few categories.
The professionals
Snoopy, Woodstock, and Plane, by Daniel Moyer Design and Fabrication – Clearly, a professional’s hand is at work here. Constructing a puppy-sized WWI biplane isn’t exactly something a friend and I could do in a weekend with some scissors and a sixpack for inspiration. But I gotta give props to the timeless subject matter–I picked up a copy of Snoopy and the Red Baron at a yardsale as a kid, and the ony thing that could’ve impressed me more was if they had built Snoopy’s bullet-ridden doghouse instead of a plane. The passed-out poodles on the wing (that’s Meteor as Snoopy) and in the cockpit (Fifigigi as Woodstock) completely won me over, though. Unlike many other more jittery subjects, they were the perfect models.
The perennials
Thriller video – Every year there are a few contestants who don’t stop at just creating a costume, but construct an entire mobile backdrop for their pets’ character. I’m thinking this looks a lot like Bandit the Chihuahua, who rolled up last year in a tableaux of one of the Dogs Playing Poker paintings. This year it was a Michael Jackson’s Thriller diaroma complete with little zombies and a flat screen monitor playing the video. The only way to really pull this off is to have a tiny dog who’s a huge ham.
Right dog, right costume
It’s good to be king – Some dogs were clearly uncomfortable wearing costumes and being photographed, but not this cocker spaniel. In every shot his nose was in the air, just as proud and cool as can be. I thought for sure he might break character when he went to sprawl in a sunbeam to rest. But just when I thought he couldn’t get more regal, he took it to a whole other level.
Dragonfly – It never would’ve occurred to me that greyhound is the dog breed that looks most like an insect but can you imagine those wings on a pug or a beagle? Ridiculous.
The Incredible Hulk – I’m not sure what kind of dog this is, but I was impressed those jean shorts stayed on the whole time. Amazing what you can do with a little green dye and some denim.
Owners get in on the act
Rappers – Some owners, particularly those with smaller dogs, tend to steal the spotlight from their pets. This rapper’s entourage totally played the part, warding off photogs while he strolled through the crowd. This pup’s badass scowl and larger-than-life bling proved he was really the star though.
There’s more photos of the event on my Flickr. I did notice that while most of the pets were sweet-natured and the owners were open to the attention, the onlookers seemed to be a little more pushy in trying to get pictures this year. True, the abundance of cute photo ops is exciting, but I’m not about to elbow someone out of my way for a picture. One woman even tried to physically block me from taking a picture of a contestant (in a public park) telling me this was her project and I need to set up my own shot. I guess now we have to deal with people making a buck in addition to everyone else who’s feeding their newly-hatched blogs and Twitter accounts. I hope this remains a fun event for those of us who are there to enjoy the day.
2009 Dog Halloween parade photos
2008 Dog Halloween parade photos
2007 Dog Halloween parade photos
2006 Dog Halloween parade photos
The Dog Halloween parade is usually held the Saturday before Halloween from noon to 3pm (Rain date Sunday) at the Tompkins Square Park dog run.
Thank you for the glowing review of our float. We do it for the love of the spotlight, so this was more satisfying than any prize we could have won at the parade.
jennifer-jo, Meteor, FiFiGiGi and Daniel
The incredible hulk is my brothers dog! She won 2nd place! She’s an Olde English Bulldogge. They’re not AKC certified as a breed yet, but they’re much better than regular English. Fewer health problems, more athletic (As you could probably judge by the bulging muscles)
Thanks Jennifer-jo, I can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!
Fannydaddy – I thought she was a bulldog but I couldn’t place the breed. What a great costume! I bet it was fun trying to get the green dye off.
You are so observant. That’s my Bandit as the one and Only Michael Jackson. I grew up watching Michael and am the same age. This was more a celebration in loving memory to Michael. We thought the parade would postpone until next week and then on Saturday night when I got home from work I read that it would go on Sunday. I broke night and took apart another float from the previous week where I built a boat for phantom of the Opera. I built the entire thing over night from the peices I planned for week. I was not satisfied and made Bandits suit all over. So that was not a costume I was in. Thats how I looked after the night of work ( Just kidding).We went to participate not win. We won our category and took Best In Show to my shock. All of the contestants are winners. The dogs were great but I was touched by Bandits fans. We love you all and God willing will see you all next time if I can come up with something new. Snoopy’s plane was awsome as were the crayola dogs. Props to the owners.Now if I could only get Bandit to let me borrow that I pod. Bandit was a rescue found almost dead from beatings 5 years ago. Now he is my spoiled rotten baby. Thanks to all of you…Bandit says “arf” a dog of few words…
Congratulations Anthony and Bandit! A well-deserved win, and it was great to see Bandit again. He’s really a superstar!
im very upset there are no pictures of me on here! i was the sparkly blue dinosaur!
Oh no, how did I miss a glittery pupsaurus? My bad!