Tim Schreier Nicolina Johnson

No, not that Tea Party, silly.

Hot on the heels of Saturday’s Halloween Dog Parade, the Mad Hatter Tea Party brought psychedelic costumes, stilt walkers, and free cookies to Tompkins Square Park.

Nicolina Johnson, the event’s main organizer along with The Free Art Society, said the annual event has doubled in size since it started three years ago. “The mission is to completely blur the line between spectator and performer, and bring people in to this world of magic and merriment that’s around them all the time,” said the artist. She and other organizers made extra hats in case people wandering by without a costume wanted to join in.

The crowd included people of all ages and hats of all sizes: Jillian Kimberling, 11, danced with her parents and younger sister. “It’s really cool. I really like all the costumes and the live music, and there are actually people portraying the real characters of Alice in Wonderland,” she said. Indeed the Mad Hatter and the March Hare started things off, and soon a six-person caterpillar began to wind its way through the crowd. The Queen of Hearts circulated authoritatively, stilt walkers danced, and an executioner dragged voluntary prisoners around behind her on leather ropes. Read more…