Fifty Buffalo Puppets Roam Brooklyn in a Free Procession
A herd of fifty puppet buffalo grazes DUMBO and Lower Manhattan, turning two free afternoons into ritual, poetry, and song.
🦬 Free and outdoors, two days
🐾 A herd on the move
The herd numbers about fifty buffalo, each one life size and steered by a small team of puppeteers on foot. Over two afternoons the animals graze and drift along the waterfront, keeping the slow, deliberate pace of a real herd. The procession also carries poets, singers, and dancers who move with the herd, turning each block into a quiet ceremony. Anyone can walk alongside, hang back at a respectful distance, or simply watch the buffalo cross through Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.
🎭 Built by hand in the studio
Each buffalo starts as a woven cane frame draped in burlap and natural fiber, with a shaggy mane and curved horns shaped by hand. Artists spend months layering material until the animals read as muscle and hide from across a plaza. Up close, the largest puppets stand taller than the people carrying them, and the herd towers over the crowd as it passes. The build honors the animal's real return from near extinction, a recovery the project frames as a season of healing.
🗺️ Where to meet them
The herd walks twice, and both days are free with no ticket required. On Friday, September 18, it moves through Lower Manhattan from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM, tracing a path from Bowling Green toward Foley Square. On Saturday, September 19, it crosses Downtown Brooklyn from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM, ending near Brooklyn Bridge Park. Regulars know to arrive early and find the herd before it gathers a crowd, then fall in step and follow the buffalo to the water.
