On Thanksgiving morning starting at 8:30 am the 97th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held. The parade took place on 77th Street and Central Park West and ended outside Macy’s Herald Square on 34th Street until around noon. Celebrated in New York City, the parade is filled with giant inflated balloons of your favorite movie and tv characters along with exciting dance, band, Broadway and music performances. This year’s parade consisted of 30 floats, 25 balloons, 17 musical performances, 9 marching bands and many more.
A huge problem in this year’s parade was the giant balloon characters were deflating. Greg Heffley from Diary of a Wimpy Kids arm was completely deflated, and the balloon began to fall on the volunteers. One of the first balloons to appear to have issues was Snoopy. His hat seemed to look deflated and was very low to the ground. Uncle Dan from upcoming movie Migration looked to have a deflated wing along with Monkey D. Luffy from manga series One Piece had an issue with his straw hat. It seemed to have collided with a tree which ended up ripping its hat open. Although many thought of this as entertainment and wrote on social media about the funny looking floats in the parade this has never been a problem in the past years.
Beginning the performances of the parade off, the marching band and dancers from Alabama A&M University led the many performances that were yet to come. Jon Batiste performed a high energy performance with his song “Worship”. Paul Russel then performs his hit song Lil Boo Thang followed by En Vogue, an R&B group who performs, “You’re the Inspiration on the Wonder Bread float. Not long after Cher took center stage and performed her new holiday single “DJ Play a Christmas Song” from her upcoming album “Christmas”. Capella group, the Pentatonix, performed their hit song “Mistletoe” along with other performances by Amanda Shaw, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, husband and wife duo David Foster and Katherine McPhee, Jessie James Decker, and many more.
Many new Broadway Musicals made a special appearance in the parade for the upcoming year. These musicals include & Juliet, which is a reimagined continuation of Romeo and Juliet. Their song ‘Confident’ performed by the cast. Followed by Back to the Future, a story about Marty McFly, who almost breaks up his teenaged parents when trying to go back in time and get them back together. Other performances included, How to Dance Ohio, Spamalot, and Shucked. Along with a fan favorite, Aladdin performed by Michael James Scott (Genie), Michael Maliakel (Aladdin), and cast. Performing a Disney favorite “Prince Ali” in the parade. Which gave the parade high energy and excitement for the years to come.
