The 35th annual Village Halloween Parade went ahead as planned Friday night despite recent sponsorship pullouts and a tighter budget. A crowd estimated at more than two million and 80,000 participants showed up to see the parade, which included the addition of “Project Bueller,” a float and re-enactment of the parade scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
"Project Bueller" founders Mina Karimi and Kara Suhey attempted to recreate Chicago’s Von Steuben Day parade scene from the 1986 John Hughes film with the Brooklyn Steppers marching band, German barmaids, and look-alikes singing along to the Beatles’ "Twist and Shout."
The stunt's only noticeable setback came from the sporadically silent speakers. Karimi said she and friends pulled together their own money for the float, and the sound system wasn’t as loud as they’d hoped. “It was a miracle it made it as far as it did,” she said. "The generator was low on gas. By the time we reached 13th Street, the music went out for about five uncomfortable minutes, but everyone sang as loud as possible to compensate."
Compensation was in short supply this year, fiscally speaking. The parade cost $50,000 to produce—half of the budget artistic producing director Jeanne Fleming is used to working with. Perrier previously sponsored the event and gave away more than 10,000 bottles of water to the crowd, but Fleming said the company pulled out because of a strike in Europe. Other corporate sponsors left when the stock market plummeted earlier this fall, and Jägermeister remained the sole participant.
"The parade is really about spirit, but things are very different when we don’t have sponsors," Fleming said. "It’s so weird to do an event of that scale, and people don't realize what it takes to make it happen. The city makes money while the parade doesn’t, and with all that it does for the city, you’d think there would be someone that steps forward to help."
