The Most Halloweeny Hood: Clinton Hill

Yesterday it struck me that that everyone probably thinks their neighborhood pulls out the most stops on Halloween. But since no one actually visits every neighborhood on Halloween, we can compare notes here and decide who is the most Halloweeny in all of Brooklyn.

I say it’s Clinton Hill.

The day began with the annual block party on Grand, where we saw the premiere of the Itty Biddies, a kids band spinoff of the Lascivious Biddies (commissioned by Carnegie Hall!). Between one of their standards, a cover of The Smiths’ “Ask,” and their original kids pop, these ladies (who also happen to be my friends) have got their new act down pat. Every Bat Man and Butterfly was jumping.

Afterward, we headed to the neighborhood’s ultimate Halloween attraction: 313 Clinton Ave. This is a snapshot of the finale of the Vampire Opera. I didn’t stick around to see the full show (my ladybug wasn’t warm enough) but it was pretty amazing to think back to their first performance in 2004, when it was easy to get a prime sidewalk spot to peer at the bubbling beakers and blood pouring off the demented operating table at the “Zombie Science: School for Ghouls.”

Every year since, they’ve produced a more elaborately themed show on their lawn. For this year’s show the entire stretch of Clinton between Lafayette and DeKalb was blocked off to accommodate a crowd in the 300s (or so) and there was at least one roving performer on the street, a werewolf pushing an ornate, ancient wheelchair with a skeleton seated inside, hooked up to a vampire transfusion device and holding a live mouse in a glass tank. It was awesome, but this is the best that I could manage from my new camera. (If anyone has a better shot, please send it in!)

313 has spawned another new neighborhood tradition, The Brooklyn Halloween Show, on Waverly, which I missed entirely. But two live Halloween performances in one neighborhood, a block party with live bands, PLUS a Halloween Festival and PUPkin costume contest the day before? I think that is enough to make this the best, biggest Halloween hood in Brooklyn.

Am I wrong?