Police walk by an inflated helium balloon of Grogu, also known as Baby Yoda, from Star Wars show The Mandalorian, on Wednesday in New York, as the balloon is prepared for the Feast Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday.
Ted Shaffrey / AP
hide captions
switch captions
Ted Shaffrey / AP
Police walk by an inflated helium balloon of Grogu, also known as Baby Yoda, from Star Wars show The Mandalorian, on Wednesday in New York, as the balloon is prepared for the Feast Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday.
Ted Shaffrey / AP
Severed by the coronavirus pandemic last year, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will return in full on Thursday, despite precautions.
Balloons, floats, marching bands, clowns and performers – and of course, Santa Claus – will once again cross the 2 and a half miles of Manhattan streets, instead of limited to one block or sometimes pre-recorded last year. The parade begins at 9 a.m. ET.
Spectators, which will be decommissioned in 2020, can reroute. High school and college marching bands from around the country were invited back into the lineup; most of last year’s performers were local to cut down on travel. Giant balloons, strapped to vehicles last year, are getting their costume handles back.
“Last year was obviously iconic. It wasn’t all we wanted to see in a parade, but they kept going,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference. on Wednesday. “This year, the parade is back in full strength.”
“That would be a great sign of our rebirth,” he added.
The Thanksgiving Parade is the latest U.S. holiday event aimed at returning as vaccines, familiarity and sheer frustration have made officials and some of the public more comfortable with gatherings. large meeting in the context of the ongoing pandemic.
However, safety measures continue. Parade staff and volunteers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear a mask, although some singers and performers may remove them. There are no vaccination requirements for spectators, but Macy’s encourages them to cover their faces. A common sight before the parade – the inflation of giant balloons – was restricted to vaccinated viewers only.
The Thanksgiving event also took place a few days after an SUV driver plowing through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee, killing six people and injure more than 60. Authorities said the driver, who was charged with attempted murder, was on the run from the police after a domestic controversy.
De Blasio said Wednesday there is no specific, credible threat to the Thanksgiving parade, but the New York Police Department’s security measures will be extended, as usual.
“I have great confidence in what the NYPD has prepared to keep everyone safe tomorrow,” he said.
Thousands of police officers were sent to participate in the parade route, from the streets to the rooftops. Cars were blocked from the parade route with garbage trucks full of sand, other heavy vehicles and about 360,000 pounds (163,000 kg) of concrete barricades.
Bomb detection dogs, bomb squad officers, heavy weapons squads, radiation and chemical sensors and more than 300 additional cameras are also being deployed to the parade route, said Martine Materasso, Head of Counterterrorism. NYPD said.
Inside the barricades, the parade featured about 8,000 participants, forty balloons of various sizes and two dozen floats.
New hot air ballooning giants to join the lineup include the title character from the Netflix series “Ada Twist, Scientist”; the Pokémon characters Pikachu and Eevee on a sleigh (Pikachu has appeared before, in a different form), and Grogu, aka “Baby Yoda,” from the TV show “The Mandalorian.” New floats are coming in from entities ranging from spice maker Heinz to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service to the Louisiana Office of Tourism.
Entertainers and celebrities include Carrie Underwood, Jon Batiste, Nelly, Kelly Rowland, Miss America Camille Schrier, the band Foreigner and many more. Several casts of the Broadway musical and Radio City Rockettes will also be performing.
