The fever for Harry Styles in New York the last couple of months has been palpable.
It started in August when dozens of people camped outside Madison Square Garden before the first concert in his 30-show residency. In September, fans competed in a look-alike contest in Times Square. Four-hour lines formed in front of the star’s pop-up shop in the East Village. Last week, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president, declared a “Harry Styles Appreciation Day.”
And it wasn’t by accident that the singer wrapped up his time in the city on a holiday that invites exuberance. The final two shows of the New York stop of Styles’s “Together, Together” tour brought the latest iteration of what the British star calls “Harryween.”
Thousands of fans descended upon Madison Square Garden on Saturday night dressed as witches and Beetlejuice and neon-colored aliens. One Styler, as the fans are known, sported a button that read “Trick or TPWK” — “Treat People With Kindness,” a longtime Styles slogan and the title of a 2019 song by the artist.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Harryween, but it’s just so hard to get tickets,” said Lexi Donnelly, a 20-year-old studying neuroscience at Drew University in New Jersey.
Donnelly was dressed up as an American Girl doll named Grace, inspired by Styles’s song “American Girls.” Her father, who had come through with tickets, wore a White Castle ensemble, prompted by a “Saturday Night Live” sketch that had Styles working a fast-food drive-thru.
Styles first hosted a Harryween in 2021, at Madison Square Garden, as part of his “Love on Tour.” That year, he took the stage as Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” and, the next night, as a clown. His fans were eager to join in: They came as Oompa Loompas and mermaids and bowls of fruit. Styles hosted a similar concert-party in California in 2022, when he was Danny Zuko from “Grease.”
On Friday night, Styles appeared onstage as Elvis Presley and later as his teenage self when he auditioned for “X Factor” in 2010. For Saturday’s show, it was Pizza Rat, the viral rodent that dragged a slice down a set of subway stairs in 2015.
“Yes, it’s a Harry show, but it’s also Halloween,” Aliza Kessler, 31, said as she waited to enter the Garden before the show on Saturday. Her friend, Christina Agosta, 32, chimed in: “The energy of the crowd, too, is 10 times better.” The women were attending their second Harryween.
In contrast, Lauren Narvey, 16, was about to attend her first solo Styles concert (as a toddler, she had seen his former boy band, One Direction, perform). She and her mother had come down from Winnipeg, Canada.
“I’ve been listening to Harry Styles since I was about a year old,” said Lauren, who was dressed as David Bowie, with silver go-go boots, red tights and a sparkly red-and-blue lightning bolt streaking across her face. (“I find Harry is kind of this generation’s David Bowie,” she said.) Her mother, Sylvia Kogan, 50, had arrived as a butterfly.
As Styles made New York his home for roughly the last 10 weeks, he set off a rash of sightings, jogging around the city and igniting a TikTok trend after he walked across the Williamsburg Bridge. He was also spotted arguing with an autograph seeker. It wasn’t the sole bit of discontent his residency had prompted. The owner of a bookstore in the East Village was charged in September with harassment and possession of a weapon after the unrelenting lines at Styles’s pop-up store down the block became too much.
Later this month, Styles will begin a stretch of shows in Melbourne, Australia.
On Saturday, Lexi Donnelly, the university student, tried to laugh off the end of the pop star’s run in New York, but her mother knew better.
“She’s going to be crying tomorrow,” said Maryam Donnelly, 56, who was wearing a watermelon costume. “She’s going to be rewatching her video on permanent loop when Harry’s gone.”
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