Forget Halloween: Denver’s costumes obsession reigns year-round

Pirates, clowns and cowgirls flood the streets on bicycles. “Star Wars” Stormtroopers crash a 5K raising funds for diabetes. Zombies prowl the 16th Street Mall while elves and superheroes take front row at the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Even the conductor is in costume.

It’s not even Halloween.

“I don’t know if I dressed up for Halloween last year because I do it so much anyway,” said Brad K. Evans, the 47-year-old founder of the Denver Cruiser Ride. “The core of our whole idea is that you have Halloween every Wednesday, May through September.”

Evans’ 10-year-old event, which entices thousands to don themed wardrobes and bike around downtown each week, is one of the countless excuses Coloradans have invented to wear costumes whenever they feel like it.

The festive spirit extends to other bike rallies, such as New Belgium’s Tour de Fat, which this year drew 43,000 (mostly) costumed attendees to events in Fort Collins and Denver. It pops up in charity races like the Denver Gorilla Run, themed parties such as Boulder’s “1940s WWII-era Ball” and the sci-fi/fantasy conventions StarFest and the Denver Comic Con.

Halloween is only when it all comes to a head.

“It’s funny to see the kids and pregnant ladies dressed as zombies at our event,” said Danny Newman, founder of the Denver Zombie Crawl. “I think it’s because zombies are easy. You can go super simple with it or extremely creative and intricate. And you can make any costume a zombie costume by ripping it up and adding blood.”

As with last year, the ninth annual Denver Zombie Crawl will attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most people dressed as zombies in a single place. The 2013 crawl drew an estimated 30,000 undead fanatics — the largest in the world, according to Newman.

With sophisticated, Guinness-approved “counting equipment” that includes facial-recognition software, Newman hopes this year’s event, which takes place along the 16th Street Mall on Oct. 18, will officially best 2013’s attendance by at least 5,000.

“I actually proposed to my now-fiancee (model and web-series host Christy Kruzick) at last year’s Zombie Crawl in full makeup,” said Newman, 33, whose interest in costumes isn’t limited to zombies. “All the pictures of us, anywhere around our house, are of us in costume.”

Costumes can be political statements, as when students from Standley Lake High School, joining other Jefferson County kids to protest new AP History curriculum standards, dressed up as characters from American history last month, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Parks. They can also be ceremonial or military obligations, tributes and honors.

“Clothing is a bundle of cultural symbols,” wrote social anthropologist Hilda Kuper in her landmark 1973 paper, “Costume and Identity.”

For many of us — including the most dedicated costume players (or cosplayers, as they’re called) — costumes are art and entertainment, craft and hobby.

“General nerd culture has grown so much in the last few years, so the visibility of cosplay has also grown as a result,” said Mandi Johnson, who goes by the name Teca in the cosplayer community and counts more than 70 costumes in her collection. “The quality has gone through the roof lately — even as more cosplayers aren’t necessarily being hardcore about making their own costumes, as used to be the case.”

Johnson gets to watch a wide swath of cosplayers as a competition judge and panelist for the Denver Comic Con, Nan Desu Kan and other area conventions. Cosplayers’ favored subjects — characters from animation, video games and comic books — are expressed in costumes ranging from handmade outfits that take thousands of hours (and dollars) to complete, to off-the-rack superhero and cartoon attire.

“I make about 90 percent of my competition costumes, but I’m a very Type-A personality, so if I have to spend an extra $20 per yard to get that perfect fabric, I will,” said Johnson, 28, who discovered cosplay as a high school freshman.

“I also have friends whose pride and joy is how much they can not spend on a costume and make their dollar stretch.”

One of those friends is Beverly Warner, who also got into cosplay in high school and now has more than 60 costumes in her collection.

“And those are just the ones I made for me!” Warner, a 33-year-old school teacher, wrote via e-mail. “I have crafting and art in my blood (thanks, Mom) and the process of design and fabrication is always exciting and challenging.”

Costumes allow us to play with our identity, whether we’re emphasizing our ideal selves or obscuring our day-to-day personalities and living out fantasies.

Some costume organizations, like the 501st Legion, are highly organized and institutionalized. Since 1997, the Legion’s members (7,000 worldwide, and more than 100 in Colorado) have been dressing as characters from the “Star Wars” universe and helping raise money for charitable organizations. Think Imperial Stormtroopers and Mandalorian bounty hunters (e.g. Boba Fett).

“I’m told there may be dancing Stormtroopers,” said Laura Bond, director of media relations for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Its second annual “Symphonic Tribute to Comic Con” at Boettcher Concert Hall on Nov. 15 will likely attract fans of “Star Wars,” Batman, “Beetlejuice” and other costume-friendly fare from which the symphony will draw its musical program.

“There will be a mini-Comic Con vibe in the lobby once again,” Bond said, referring to events like the Denver Comic Con, which this year drew 75,000 to the Colorado Convention Center.

“Costumes are masks, which means they’re social lubricants,” said Denver Cruiser Ride’s Evans, who will host the season-ending, Broncos-themed (and NFL-approved) “Orange Night Ride” on Oct. 23.

“You don’t need booze or drugs. And that’s probably the recipe of our success: you can be anyone.”

John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnwenzel