Costumed marchers at a Halloween parade on Chicago's North Side in 2017. Photo: AlasdairW / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Jonathan Mayo got the idea for Uptown’s Thriller Parade on a trip home. Mayo, who grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, and has an undergraduate degree in theater, was visiting family a few years ago when he saw that city’s Halloween Thriller Parade, a crowd of people of all ages dancing to Michael Jackson.
What stuck with him was the mix of people. Every age and background was out on the street together because of the music. He decided Chicago needed one, and Uptown was the first place he thought of.
Two years of planning
Mayo started researching about two years ago. He contacted the dance company behind the Kentucky event for advice, began working with local business groups, and gradually pulled the pieces together. His theater training leans toward production, and logistics have been the main lesson. Even when everything seems settled, he says, something goes wrong and you need a backup plan.
The parade steps off Friday, Oct. 31, from Buttercup Park at 4901 N. Sheridan Road, with children’s activities from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Positive loitering
Mayo’s goals are simple. He wants people to have fun and to meet their neighbors, and he likes the idea of what he calls positive loitering: filling the streets with residents on a night when many families look for something safe to do. Part of the appeal, he says, is watching neighbors dance after a long week of work.
He also loves the surprise built into the Kentucky version, where so many people are in costume that spectators can’t tell who is part of the parade until the dancing starts. He hopes Uptown will pick up that tradition. As he sees it, almost everyone likes Michael Jackson, which makes “Thriller” an easy way to get a whole neighborhood moving at once.
Joel Sandoval covers arts, music venues and nightlife.
