By Jamie McEachin

Costume-clad dogs and their human companions ambled through Riverside Park on Saturday behind a golf cart blaring Halloween music, swathed in purple-and-orange tinsel and ghost stickers. The afternoon sun filtered through the gold-and-burgundy autumn leaves that lined the parade route through the park. 

An estimated 150 Upper West Side dogs, families, and spectators gathered from noon to 3 p.m. for the Riverside Park Conservancy’s first Riverside Park Pup Halloween Parade and Costume Contest. The parade began on the park’s promenade near West 116th Street and stopped at Ellington in the Park, an outdoor cafe near West 105th Street, for candy, beverages, and costume judging. 

Contestants competed in the categories of Best Overall, Best Small Pup, Best Large Pup, Spookiest Pup, Best Group, Best Owner and Pup Costume, and the People’s Choice Pup. Winners took home golden trophies. 

“We’re paws-itively thrilled to welcome the Riverside Park dog community to our inaugural Halloween Pup Parade! This event will give our neighborhood the opportunity to showcase its special brand of canine creativity right here at home, without having to travel to another part of the city,” said Merritt Birnbaum, the Conservancy’s president and CEO, in a press release. “We can’t wait to see the adorable costumes our local pups will wear, but also to celebrate the special bond between dogs, their humans, and our beautiful park.”

Erica Regan attended the parade with her husband and their dog, Eli. Regan and her husband were dressed in T-Shirts representing salsa verde and mild hot sauce to accompany Eli’s taco costume. Regan stashed a Trader Joe’s hot sauce bottle in her jeans pocket as an additional prop.

“I had to find a costume that was minimal enough for my dog and my husband,” Regan laughed. “We also want to make sure the dog can pee…practicality, yes.”

Regan loves to dress Eli up in costume, so she said she was “so psyched” to learn that a parade was planned “right in our home” as an alternative to the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade, which she has never been able to attend.

Dog walking is a ubiquitous sight in Riverside Park on a sunny, chilly day in late October – but usually, neither dog nor human is wearing a dinosaur blow-up suit. The costumes were largely playful, whimsical, or tongue in cheek. An Upper West Sider carried a plush bagel and a four-legged “Zabark’s” shopping tote, as a dill pickle with blonde pigtails and a furiously wagging tail, and a jack-o’-lantern contentedly paraded with a stick in its mouth.

The procession of paraders arrived at Ellington in the Park around 1:15 p.m., and the judges (themselves in costume) filtered through the crowd to observe the competitors. The event’s host, comedian Rachael Burke, entertained the crowd while the judges made their deliberations.

The panel of judges included Rachel Dickson, of @thebestoftheupperwestside on Instagram; Bobby Panza, freelance reporter; Anthony Rubio, fashion designer and founder of The Pet Gala; and Anne Watkins, a local artist.

“I like more of the homemade, concocted outfits, and I like to see how people put things together,” Rubio said, when asked what he looked for while judging costumes. “And the presentation and the attitude, because you could just force a dog, and I don’t believe in that. So, I want to have fun with the whole situation – and Halloween is supposed to be all about fun.”

Some disgruntled dogs shook off hats and capes, straining at their leashes to greet cooing passersby. Participants gushed over other competitor’s costumes, requesting photos of their costumed dogs. Some owners left the costumes to their four-legged companions, but others decided to join in on the Halloween spirit.

Jessica Li and Dennis Chua were inspired by their dog Barley’s snow-white fur, deciding to dress up their five-person family group as polar bears from the iconic Coca-Cola advertisement. They wore red Coca-Cola-branded accessories over their polar bear onesies. 

“We call him our mini polar bear, anyway,” Li said.

Li said they thought they would qualify for Best Group category, but were surprised to be finalists in multiple categories. Li and Chua’s family costumes earned them the trophy for the Best Owner and Pup Costume category. 

“Maybe because the owner is cute, too,” Li said, referring to her baby daughter dressed as a miniature polar bear.

“It’s our baby’s first little trophy, first Halloween costume,” Li said. “And it was all thanks to her steady pup brother.”

We haven’t received the full list of winners yet, but suffice it to say, everyone was a winner at Riverside Park Conservancy’s Inaugural Halloween Pup Parade!

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