Tompkins Square Dog Parade Falls Victim to Its Popularity

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Thousands of people and pups alike eagerly flooded a blocked-off Avenue A in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, October 19, for what has become one of the city’s most anticipated events: the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade.

Now in its 34th year, the parade was as chaotic as it was celebratory. The costume contest on the big stage was nixed and the procession, gone as quickly as it came, took place on the streets due to park renovations.

Succumbing to its own explosion in popularity, the event has been organized by dog lover Joseph Borduin since 2020. Borduin announced that this was his last year orchestrating the parade in an interview with the Gothamist last week, stating that he needs “another, bigger entity to take over this beast because it’s just too much for a small dog park to handle.” According to Borduin, the city imposes various bureaucratic hurdles for obtaining permits to host the popular event.

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With a lack of clarity and limited communications from the park’s Dog Run, attendees and participants alike were left in the dark regarding the parade — some complained of general disorganization while others said they’d just show up and hope for the best in the comments section of the terse announcement post on Instagram. Nevertheless, the show went on with an exceptionally enthusiastic turnout, irate police officers, and an egregious amount of cuteness and creativity from the dogs and their humans (respectively).

Without further ado, we present some of the highlights from the parade and its aftermath:

Sid Henderson, agent and father to Instagram-famous pug-fluencer Kuma, told Hyperallergic that the pair looks forward to the Halloween Dog Parade every year. Kuma was a real crowd-pleaser as he sauntered down the open streets to cheers and “awwws,” and donned his costume as the balloon-powered house from the Disney animated movie Up (2009). At one point, Henderson lifted Kuma into the air as if he was floating away, yielding shrieks of joy and whistles from the crowd.

Meanwhile, Roxy the doodle embodied Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “Finger Lickin’ Good” slogan by gently licking my hand … Go figure!

Seated in a foldable sporting chair on the sidelines of the procession, Chacha the chihuahua jack-o’-lantern stayed in his comfort zone: his mother Alina’s lap. Though they had fun, Alina said the parade was “super confusing and disorganized” this year compared to the last iteration.

“The way the wristbands were handed out was very confusing,” she reiterated. “There were only, like, 600 for all the dogs … There’s definitely more than 600 dogs here, doing the parade anyways. I don’t really understand how this is happening this year.”

To Alina’s point, even I was able to access the parade path without being asked to produce a wristband or even a dog.

Joel, Jared, and Waffle came as Toyotathon this year! The crowd went crazy for the trio as the two inflatable men wagged their arms down the parade path. Not pictured is the car’s vanity plate that simply read “WAFFLE.”

Though they came separately for their first time at the parade, Santi the bumble bee and Chloe the ladybug matched each other’s docile energy. Chloe’s mom, Min, said that though they missed the procession, “it’s been so much fun and [they] can’t wait for next year.”

Colby Levin said that she and her pug-turned-croissant Olive have been coming to the Halloween Parade for years.

Whether anyone steps up to the plate to organize the 35th iteration of the Halloween Dog Parade remains to be seen, so we must savor every memory of this magnificent celebration, as it might just be the last!

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Rhea Nayyar (she/her) is a New York-based teaching artist who is passionate about elevating minority perspectives within the academic and editorial spheres of the art world. Rhea received her BFA in Visual... More by Rhea Nayyar