Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray offered tricks and treats at the Gracie Mansion Halloween spooktacular during their final public celebration of the holiday in office.
The grounds of the mayor’s official residence on the Upper East Side were transformed into a spine-chilling maze brimming with haunting activities for attending families on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31. Some of the eerie entertainment included a haunted house, corn maze, a graveyard complete with roaming zombies, and more.
Tickets for the two-day extravaganza were given away for free to vaccinated New Yorkers from all five boroughs and were quickly sold out thanks to the promise of exploring the historic property through a ghostly lens.
Upon entry, children were given a trick or treat bag before being let loose to explore the scares awaiting them over the mud-laden estate. Put together with the aid of the NYC Parks Department and several sponsors, an array of monstrous props such as skeletons and witches towered over the bounding youngsters running hither and thither in their costumes while bats and spiders dangled in the October chill.
“I’m amazed,” Jackie Munoz said, holding onto her six-year-old daughter, Ariana Fellows, as they looked around at a field of skulls and coffins. “We’ve been looking forward to this. We’ve never had a chance to go, and now today, walking into it, it’s beautiful. I love it. I like how creepy it is but also organized and secure.”
In addition to the hair-raising inanimate objects (and objects that were not so inanimate) the Halloween wonderland was also chock-full of actors playing the roles of ghostly pirates, shambling zombies, and ghouls wielding a mock chainsaw who sprang out at attendees. The event didn’t only supply scary surprises, however. Mayor de Blasio and First Lady McCray appeared from the mansion decked out in Star Trek attire to greet visitors.
The trekkies handed out candy and took selfies with hordes of scrambling families.
“It was wonderful, I didn’t expect it,” Sachin Agrawal said, after his family jumped in fright when an actor sprung out with a chainsaw. After residing in Yorkville for half a decade, they’ve never had the opportunity to visit the haunted event at Gracie Mansion until now.
“I’m really quite impressed with the work they laid out,” Agrawal added, while his eight-year-old daughter shared that she was not pleased with the haunted house, since it thoroughly gave her a fright. She did, however, enjoy the rest of the spooky atmosphere and candy.
