The Halloween Gathering is the first night time parade of it’s kind in Chicago’s loop. The Parade is hosted by The Cultural Mile, an organization that works directly with artists to help spread the love of art, and music, throughout the city.
Wanting to break away from political events such as the St Patrick’s Day parade, this gathering was designed to celebrate creatives without any corporate funding.
Growing up in Bridgeport, I wanted to go back to the area and put together a team. The parade was very special to me, as it was the first nighttime parade we had on the south side – let alone in the loop.
Our team would meet at McGuane park – who generously donated a room in their field house for us to work in. The Bridgeport News sponsored us with newspapers for our creation.
Since the budget was tiny, we went old school and created this devil from paper mache. It took about a month of work for my partner to create the head alone on this guy. Paper Mache is very tedious work, and we needed something that would hold up to the elements and putting lights in. Chicago can be pretty cold and damp in October.
Our team decided also on creating Legion, who was based on the movie. What a great movie – and makeup. To make him easier to transport, he was supported by a custom push cart.
