One Mile of Costumes, West Hollywood Hands Santa Monica Boulevard to Halloween

Santa Monica Boulevard has hosted plenty of parades. On October 31 it hosts something stranger and better. For five hours the city hands a full mile of its main street to anyone in a costume, and hundreds of thousands of people show up to take it.

The West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval runs Saturday from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. between North Doheny Drive and North La Cienega Boulevard. Admission is free. There are no tickets, no bleachers and no floats. The crowd is the parade, and the boulevard is the runway.

The crowd is the parade, and the boulevard is the runway.

It started in 1987 as a neighborhood party rooted in the gay bars of Boystown. Former mayor John J. Duran once described the origin as a bunch of gay men in drag stumbling in heels on Santa Monica Boulevard, before it grew into what organizers call the largest Halloween street party in the world.

The numbers tell the story of that growth. Organizers expected 500,000 people in 2011. The 2016 Carnaval drew an estimated 500,000, according to event photographers. The 2018 edition drew more than 400,000. This year the city is planning around a crowd of more than 100,000 costumed revelers across the weekend.

A History of Spectacle

The Carnaval has always rewarded commitment. In 2010 organizers went after a Guinness World Record for the most people dancing the Time Warp at once. In 2015 the theme was disco, with five stages of DJs spinning across the mile and actor Darren Criss crowned King of the Carnaval in a 9 p.m. ceremony on the main stage. That year Mayor Lauren Meister praised the creativity of the costumes and called the night part of what makes West Hollywood extraordinary.

Getting There Is the Hard Part

The party is free. Getting to it takes planning. Santa Monica Boulevard closes between Croft Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard and between La Cienega Boulevard and North Doheny Drive from 10 a.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Sunday, and the main stretch must be fully closed to cars by noon. Robertson Boulevard and North San Vicente Boulevard close from 7 a.m. La Cienega Boulevard shuts between Holloway Drive and Melrose Avenue, and the turn lanes from Sunset Boulevard onto southbound La Cienega close too.

Parking disappears with the streets. The West Hollywood Park structure stays closed all day Saturday. The Library Garage closes from 5 a.m. Saturday until 7 a.m. Sunday. The city runs a free WeHo Halloween Ride from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. along Santa Monica Boulevard between North La Brea Avenue and North Kings Road, with select vehicles connecting to the Hollywood and Highland Metro station until midnight. Bus routes 4, 10, 105, 212, 312, 217 and 218 all reach the area.

Once inside, the setup is simple. The main stage sits at Santa Monica Boulevard and North San Vicente Boulevard with a live DJ. Food trucks line the route. Photo stations are scattered through the party zone for the costumes that took months to build.

After 11

The street party ends at 11 p.m. The night does not. The bars and clubs of the Rainbow District take over, many with their own ticketed Halloween events. Micky’s in West Hollywood sells a Halloween Pass covering all day and all night entry plus an after hours event that runs until 4 a.m. On the Sunset Strip, the White Rabbit Sky Lounge hosts its 12th annual Halloween blowout with rooftop dancing until 2 a.m.

That handoff is the point. The Carnaval was never really a parade. It is a neighborhood showing off, one mile at a time, in whatever its residents dreamed up that year. Show up early, wear something you made, and leave the car at home.