Scenes from Saturday's huge ‘Great Pupkin’ dog Halloween contest in Fort Greene Park

Thousands of spectators cheered on dozens of very good, very silly-looking dogs

Halloween weekend got off to a howling good start on Saturday morning in Fort Greene Park as thousands of people (and, often, their dogs) packed the monument stairs to watch and participate in the 24th annual Great Pupkin costume contest.

Staged by Fort Greene PUPS, which stands for the Park Users and Pets Society, the competition was coordinated this year by last year’s winner, Alana Davis (her dog Howie went dressed as Sabrett’s hot dog cart). “It’s a really fun community day,” Davis tells Brooklyn Magazine. “The electricity in the neighborhood is super contagious, everyone turns out, and even after the contest it’s just fun walking around the park feeling the excitement. So many cute dogs, so many creative costumes.”

There are no losers when dozens of doggos dress up in ridiculous outfits, but there were some actual, official winners on Saturday, chosen by an elite panel of judges and, for the top three, by cheers from the enormous crowd. The judges on Saturday were Deidre Stone, the Executive Director of Fort Greene Conservancy; Evan Ross Katz, the popular podcast host and pop culture writer; Councilmember Crystal Hudson; and Candy Pilar Godoy from Instagram’s Dogs of NYC.

Taking first place this year was an incredible Princess and the Pea set up, with Lupini Bean the dog playing the princess, and her dog mom’s face in the role of the pea. “We chose this costume because we annoy her so much,” the pea tells Brooklyn Magazine.

Best in Show winner Lupini Bean as the princess, and her dog mom as the pea (Scott Lynch)

Cheeto the three-legged dog took home second place honors for his dead-on portrayal of Kyrre, IKEA’s three-legged stool.

Second place winner Cheeto, a three-legged dog as a three-legged stool from IKEA (Scott Lynch)

Third prize went to the trio operating a “Local Express” steam engine train that was also somehow the 2 train.

The conductors of the third place winner, Local Express (Scott Lynch)

Placing in the top 10 was a black pug named Sushi Gorgeous in the role of Alien Superstar. Bed-Stuy resident Victoria Strahl explains the elaborate, flying-saucer-sucking-up-cows getup she made with her roommate: “This costume is in part inspired by Beyoncé’s song Alien Superstar,” she says. “And we also wanted to play into how pugs are aliens, both visually and as a Men In Black reference. And in the American cultural lexicon, so to speak, cows are sometimes sucked into UFOs over the plains of Kansas, or what have you. They’re the first victims.”

Victoria Strahl, Sushi Gorgeous, and their elaborate ‘Alien Superstar’ getup (Scott Lynch)

Other notable contestants were Yayoi Kusama, complete with Infinity Room; a Wordle costume; “Midnights” Taylor Swift; a whole team’s-worth of dogs (and their people) in “League of Their Own” outfits; at least two spotted lantern flies, Max and a couple of “Wild Things;” a very much not ultra-violent Alex from “Clockwork Orange;” and, not competing but still pretty adorable, a mop.

In fact, there were good costumes galore among the non-competitor canines, like Prospect Lefferts resident Bowie and his owner Jenny Peterson. “He is Jareth the Goblin King from the 1986 hit movie ‘Labyrinth,’ starring David Bowie,” says Peterson. “We only do David Bowie costumes. He was Ziggy Stardust last year. I was worried that no one under the age of 30 would get the ‘Labyrinth’ reference, and I’m finding that apparently it’s not as popular a movie as I thought for any age group. But I’m still into it.”

Jenny Peterson and Bowie, playing David Bowie as Jareth, the goblin king in ‘Labyrinth’ (Scott Lynch)

Most of the thousands of spectators came without dogs, including Hampton Dodd, who recently moved to Bay Ridge and was in Fort Greene an hour early to get a good seat. “This is our third Great Pupkin,” he says. “It’s our replacement for actually having a dog. We get our fill for the year and then we’re good until next October. Maybe one day we’ll get a dog, once we get the costumes planned out.”

Here are a few more photos from the day.