Halloween is the first day of our Election Day holiday.  Enough said.


halloweenFriday

NYC Village Halloween Parade

7pm , 6th Ave between Spring and 23rd Street

To participate: Line up in costume at 6pm, 6th Ave between Spring and Broome Streets

Last year 45,000 people participated and over 2 million people came to watch, and for good reason.  It’s been rated as one of the top 1,000 experiences you must have before you die, and honestly, there’s nothing like it anywhere else.  Go get your New Yorker cred.

Price: Free! 

St. John’s Halloween Extravaganza

7pm and 10pm, St. John the Divine

A Halloween treat literally in our backyard!  The 1925 version of the Phantom of the Opera, complete with accompaniment by their world-famous church organ, will be playing.  Afterwards, ghoulish forms and figures (i.e., giant puppets) parade through the church.  It’s a lot more low-key than the village, but certainly worth its weight in spookiness.

Price: $15

Theater for the New City’s 31st Annual Costume Ball

8pm, Theater for the New City: 155 1st Ave (212.254.1109)

Free outdoor entertainment starts 4pm.

If the West Village seems too cliche for you, head over to the east side for food, performances (including burlesque and vaudeville numbers), and all kinds of fortune-telling. Come in your best All Hallowed Duds, because there’s a costume contest with some wacky categories (Most Organic Costume? What?).

Price: $20

TheDanger Halloween: The Promised Land

9pm-Saturday, various times and locations, see website for details

Make Halloween stretch all weekend – this marathon event will keep you going from the Meatpacking District to a Bushwick warehouse party to a secret Williamsburg loft location (which will be announced en route), among other things.

Price: Varies depending on venue

Critical Mass Ride and Halloween Dance Party

7pm, Union Square, with an afterparty at 9pm

If you’re a devotee of two-wheeled transportation, join your cycling brothers and sisters en masse for a takeover of the Manhattan streets.  The swarm will eventually converge at the Surreal Estate’s Brooklyn Headquarters for a dance party played by Rude Mechanical Orchestra.  Valet parking available!

Price: $10

Halloween Movie Marathon

Friday 7:30pm-12:30am, Brooklyn Lyceum 227 4th Ave (866.469.2687)

If insanity isn’t your style, get scared out of your wits with this series of non-kiddie-friendly fright films.  The Rocky Horror Picture Show caps off the evening, of course.

Price: $5 per film

Saturday

Immigrant Writers in New York: Junot Díaz

4pm, Brooklyn Public Library Grand Army Plaza (718.230.2100)

If you’re awake with enough time to get yourself to Brooklyn, come hear Junot Diaz read from “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel.  It’s a cultural compendium with noticeable influences from all over the place—it’ll be good to keep your brain humming until class on Wednesday.

Price: Free!

100 Years of Animation: Serge Bromberg presents Treasures from a Chest

7pm, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St

It’s been 100 years since Emile Cohl created modern animation, and this event presents his landmark Fantasmagorie in honor of this centennial.  Other classic animations will play, all accompanied by piano.

Price: $10

Prints Gone Wild

Saturday 6pm-midnight and Sunday noon-6pm, Supreme Trading 213 N 8th St (718.599.4224)

Cannonball Press hosts this festival of hand-made graphic art.  Supplies will be on sale, workshops will be held, fun will be had.

Price: Free!

Sunday

ING New York City Marathon

9am, various locations

The city shuts down to take a look at the 2 million (or so) participants and spectators that flock to New York for this world-famous marathon, so check out what all the hype is about.

Price: Free!  

– Sara Jane Panfil