Mad Hatters' Parade steps off Saturday

The parade will step off from the Hudson Area Library at 51 North 5th St., proceed over to Warren Street where it will turn left on to City Hall Place, then right on to Union Street, followed by a right on to South 2nd Street, then left on to Columbia Street to Empire State Trail, and it will finish at Promenade Hill Park.

The parade follows a different route every year to include as many parts of the city as possible, said Alex Kahn, artistic director of the parade and co-founder of Processional Arts Workshop.

“We’re trying to make sure everyone knows that this is a grassroots community event, not an official parade that only goes down Warren Street,” he said. “By varying the route, it gives us an opportunity to think ‘who haven’t we reached with this parade, which parts of the community haven’t we activated.’”

The Mad Hatters’ Parade originated with Kahn and Sophia Michahelles, co-founder of Processional Arts Workshop, whose giant puppets lead New York City’s Halloween Parade, Rhinebeck’s Sinterklaas Parade and other processions around the world.

The amount of people participating in the Hudson parade has grown, Kahn said.

“More and more of the parade has become people showing off what they made,” he said. “The numbers have grown in a manageable, community-oriented way.”

The parade consists of people marching, and does not include floats or trucks. The goal of the event is not to have as many participants as possible, but to focus on creating, Kahn said.

“We’re still a small nimble event, and that’s how we like it,” he said. “Our goal is not to get as big as possible, but to have people get invested in creating.”

This year, the organization has been working with Friends of Hudson Youth and Perfect Ten to help with building and designing some of the hats and costumes for the children participating in the parade.

The organization’s partners in the parade, as well as local businesses, have also been helping to ensure the children have help with their costumes, Kahn said.

“Businesses have really come through to make sure outreach prior to the parade is enough to make sure kids can get mentorship to build their costumes,” he said.

The children will be leading the procession, Kahn said.

“I’m hoping they’ll all be able to come out on Saturday and strut their stuff at the head of the parade,” he said. “Having kids in the parade, and also take the lead, is really exciting and how it should be.”

The best part of the parade is seeing how everyone interprets the Mad Hatter theme, Kahn said.

“For some people Mad Hatter means ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ we’ve also had other people who are into the sound-making aspect and have made hats out of tuning forks and a group of vinyl aficionados who wear records,” he said.

Other participants in the parade have also worn costumes and hats related to societal issues, such as climate change, Kahn said.

“It isn’t about following a specific narrative or theme, it’s all individualized,” he said. “Every single hat is valuable to us for showing off how diverse the creative community in Hudson is.”