Elijah Hurewitz-Ravitch, Contributing Photographer

A flotilla of sea-related creatures marched down Whalley Avenue on Sunday morning, marking the annual Giant Puppet and People Making Mayhem Parade. 

Approximately two dozen people carried 10-foot-long fish, various forms of octopuses and other less easily identifiable beasts, all handmade. They filled the street to a background of New Orleans live jazz and held court over downtown Westville and later Edgewood Park.

Muffy Pendergast, a local artist and art teacher, organizes the parade each year; she estimated that this was its thirteenth iteration. According to several attendees, it has become a beloved neighborhood tradition. 

“It’s an essential key ingredient,” said Jaime Kane, a teacher at Westville Community Nursery School. “It is an amazing mecca of creativity, our little community.”

Pendergast, who is known locally as the “Empress of the Arts,” explained that she spent all of October preparing for the parade. With support from the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance, she hosted public puppet-making sessions on Monday and Thursday nights and on the weekends.

“It’s whoever feels like showing up to build a puppet,” she said.

Pendergast explained that she welcomed both longtime participants and fresh faces. 

One such newcomer was Susan Feldman, a therapist from Hamden.

“When I saw the advertisement, I said, ‘Giant puppets?’ I couldn’t think of anything more exciting to do with my time,” she said.

On Sunday, Feldman carried an enormous mermaid with long tendrils of blonde hair. She explained that it had taken her 20 hours to construct.

She said that the moving arms were especially challenging to craft. 

“Oh my gosh, I love mermaids, and I thought it would be a beautiful visual effect, floating through the sky,” she added.

At the parade, Kane said, those who had not made their own puppets used creations from previous years.

Accompanied by the East Rock Brass Band, the papier-mâché procession spent about 15 minutes on Whalley Avenue before concluding in the northwest corner of the historic Edgewood Park. There, parade participants and viewers alike spent time at the weekly CitySeed farmers market, where vendors sold local produce, pastries and bread, and home goods. The local band The EcleKtics, along with musicians from the brass group, provided musical entertainment at the farmer’s market. 

Pendergast, inspired by a similar event in South Norwalk, brought the parade to Westville.

“This is such a good community to throw that idea to. No one said no. Everyone thought it was a great idea,” Pendergast recalled.

This year, she explained, she decided to stage a “West River Tableau” — hence all the sea creatures — to honor the stream that runs from central Connecticut to the New Haven Harbor and that flows through Edgewood Park. 

Pendergast invited those who attended the puppet-making sessions, including her kindergarten–8th grade art students, to imagine what might live in the river. And so, at the parade, a wide variety of aquatic fauna was on display. 

“We had people as pufferfish, we had otters and dog-topuses and cat-topuses. I haven’t seen those yet, but, you know, I don’t give up hope.”

Sunday’s Giant Puppet Parade was the East Rock Brass Band’s first. 

Already, though, trumpet player Artie Koba was inspired by the role of the parade in shaping Westville culture.

“Stuff like this is just what makes a community come together and bond, make connections,” Koba said. “And that’s how ideas grow and prosper, is that we bounce ideas off of each other. Bring joy to the people.”

The high on Sunday was 59 degrees Fahrenheit.