Ever since 1924, Macy’s has held its annual Thanksgiving Day parade in New York. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic that is still very active in America, the parade will be aired on the NBC network this year. If you are familiar with the parade, then you will know that there are performances from Broadway shows, high school bands, and the balloon march.
This year, the parade will eliminate the high school band performances. Susan Tercero stated in a Variety magazine article,” We realized that schools weren’t sure where they were going to be [in fall].” Tercero said,” Most schools were closed. They did not know if they were even going to have a marching band program in the fall. We had to make that decision quickly for them because there was a lot of unknown in their world.”
There will still be performances from many of the Broadway shows that had to pause production since the beginning of quarantine. According to the New York Times, Broadway shows such as “Mean Girls”, “Jagged Little Pill”, “Hamilton”, and “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations”, will all perform. Instead of performing live, the four performances will be filmed before the parade and will be aired alongside the three hours televised event.
The Balloon march will also look very different this year. Instead of having workers holding the balloons down, utility vehicles will be holding the balloons. There will be zero audience members this year, and to prevent anyone from crashing the event, NYPD has blocked off all of the sections where the parade will take place. Tercero stated in a New York Times interview,” We still wanted to deliver what people expect on Thanksgiving morning.”
Many New York parades that could not march this year will be getting their golden moment on Thanksgiving morning. Parades such as Puerto Rican Say, St. Patrick’s Day, NYC Pride, West Indian Day, and Coney Island USA Mermaids.
Many other celebrities are also lined up for performances such as Lauren Alaina, Sofia Carson, Tori Kelly, Patti LaBelle, Matthew Morrison, AJR, Leslie Odom Jr., Keke Palmer, Dolly Parton, Pentatonix, Bebe Rexha, and Jordin Sparks.
Two new balloons are also set to appear in this year’s parade. Boss Baby from the DreamWorks animation “The Boss Baby: Family Business” and Red Titan from Sunlight Entertainment “Ryan’s World”.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will be televised on the NBC network, but in case you don’t have cable TV, there will be many streaming services airing the parade live. Hulu and Sling TV will be streaming the parade live as well. The parade will also be live-streamed on Verizon’s YouTube channel. The parade will air on Nov. 26 at 9 a.m. est and will finish at noon.