Rosemary Ponzo went to the Easter parade decked out as Judy Garland in a lavish black tulle hat with hot pink ostrich features in tribute to the actress, who immortalised the outlandish Easter bonnet display in a 1948 movie opposite Fred Astaire.

The annual event along Manhattan's Fifth Avenue is more of a leisurely stroll than a parade, with smiling folks - and pets - strutting their homemade headgear as others snap their pictures or pose with them.

Nicki Gallas brought her large toy poodle, Maisie, dressed up in a flower bonnet and pinafore. Ensconced inside a makeshift bicycle basket, he happily posed for anyone who wanted to take his picture.

Ms Gallas, who has been going to the parade for 30 years, also brought along her Eastern box turtle, Tuck, but left his cowboy hat at home because "it was too much to deal with".

The Easter parade is a tradition that dates back more than 100 years. It originally was a chance for prosperous New Yorkers to strut their finery after attending services at one of the churches on Fifth Avenue.

Garland and Astaire immortalised it in the musical Easter Parade.

Ms Ponzo, a costume designer, completed her Garland outfit with a black cape, studded hose, black ankle boots, purple fingerless gloves, Armani jewelled wrist cuffs and long false eyelashes.

Canadian tourist Joanna Bubinska was attending the parade for the first time but came prepared wearing a chapeau with a bird cage and black paper cat trying to get at it on her head. She said she had heard about the parade back home in Kitchener, south-west of Toronto, and wanted to participate.

Brooklyn resident Maria Campanella could barely keep her head straight. Her bonnet, weighing about 7kg, was a tall cross anchored to an inverted basket made of 12 egg cartons filled with plastic coloured eggs.

Her goddaughter, Lauren Juliano sported a slightly smaller version filled with black and white eggs.

"They're in memory of my father," Ms Campanella said of the hats. "This is the first Easter without him."

Joie Gregory and her daughter Catherine, 4, walk down the street at the Easter Bonnet Parade in New York. Picture: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi