Now that we have sized it down and are no longer living in a home in a residential community, we realized that we wouldn’t have any trick-or-treaters coming to our door. So, we asked ourselves, “What do fun-loving empty nesters do on Halloween night?” We decided to be a part of the largest Halloween street party in the world, the West Hollywood (WEHO) Carnavale down Santa Monica Blvd. The concept is to dress up in a costume, and join the crowd of 500,000 and walk together up and down the boulevard, in a sort of ongoing informal parade.

One of my favorite aspects of the Carnavale is that everyone loves to have their photo taken with everyone else. It’s a chance to be a star and be a paparazzi all in the same night. The live music stages and food trucks add to the the festive atmosphere. Judging by the looks of some of the costumes, many of which are home-made, some celebrants spend months designing and crafting their imaginative alter-selves. Just seeing men walk in 5 inch heels without any effort was highly impressive to me. Some costumes were relevant to the daily news, including an ice bucket challenge group, a man in a hazmat suit in a homemade “lyft” for Atlanta, Ray Rice with a blow up doll, and a few CDC inspectors, Ebola victims / viruses, and scientists.
Since Halloween Carnavale begins at 6:00 PM, even people who like to be in bed by 10:00 (like me) can attend, live it up, and call it a night. Now that I’ve gotten a taste for this event, I think I’m more excited than the old neighborhood kids for Oct 31st 2015 to arrive.











http://www.visitwesthollywood.com/halloween-carnaval/

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