Halloween: Join monstrous masses at West Hollywood Costume Carnaval

All dressed up with nowhere to go? Not this weekend. Los Angeles and surrounding areas will be full of spine-tingling galas and gatherings, goblins and ghouls, with houses, bars and even church auditoriums decked out for fright night. For Southern California’s most boisterous to-do, however, plan on spending your Halloween at the 21st annual West Hollywood Costume Carnaval, where you can strut your threads among hundreds of thousands of others. On the giant runway that is Santa Monica Boulevard, this is one of the world’s largest Halloween parties.

[Need costume inspiration? Click on the photo above to see a photo gallery of revelers at last year's WeHo soiree.]

You’ll see a lot of drag couture, as well as garb (or lack of it) ranging from the X-rated to the political. And there’s extra impetus to make your own ensemble extraordinary: For the evening’s costume competition, undercover judges will roam the crowds to pick out 20 finalists for the contest to take place at the “Bat Stage” on the corner of Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards at 10 p.m. The grand prize is $1,000, second prize is $500 and third $250. Anyone in attendance is eligible to be picked, as there are no pre-qualifying events at bars as there have been in past years.

Three stages throughout the festival will host live-music performers including the M80s, Jeri Curl, the Funky Hippeez and more. At 9 p.m. on the “Bat Stage,” the popular coronation of the queen and king will take place; this year’s royalty are comedienne Chelsea Handler, host of the E! show “Chelsea Lately,” and her assistant Chuy.

When: Friday, Oct. 31, 2008, 6 p.m. to 11 p. m.

Where: Santa Monica Boulevard, between Doheny Drive & La Cienega Boulevard, West Hollywood

Contact: City of West Hollywood, (323) 848-6534

Will you be braving the West Hollywood masses? Do you dare share who you’ll be? Let us know your Halloween plans in the Comments below.

— Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: Miguel Bravo, Fernando Vink and Javiar Gama in costume at the 2007 West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnaval. Credit: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 9:54 am by Susan Derby and is filed under California, Festival, Gay, Los Angeles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.