STORY: :: November 27, 2024

:: New York

:: New Yorkers watch as balloons come to life

prior to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

“It’s all about joy and fun and lightheartedness, and about spirit and being together as a family.”

‘Lots of colors, and they’re so big. And I just want to see Spiderman and Kermit the Frog.”

:: Orlando Veras, spokesperson for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

“All the balloons in the Macy’s parade are unique. They’re all different scale and size. They have different chambers. One of the things that people don’t know about is that they have to… make this a giant balloon out of scale, they’re basically multiple balloons glued together. So you know the hand can be one balloon and the nose can be the other balloon. And then they’re all sealed together to make the bigger balloon. So depending on the number of chambers .that’s what we call they, If the balloon does, it will take a little longer to inflate them because you have to not only get them inflated but also in the right position when you inflate the head and you also have to inflate the hat and the hat is not inflated, then you cannot reach the hat when the head is already up.”

Hundreds of spectators watched as workers blew helium into 17 character balloons, 22 floats and 15 heritage and novelty balloons.

“It’s all about joy and fun and lightheartedness, and spirit and being together as a family,” said Rachel Walsh of Mountainside, New Jersey, who came to watch the balloon inflation with her husband and two sons but did not. I do not plan to attend the parade, which will also feature more than 700 clowns, 11 marching bands and 10 performance groups.

The parade starts at 8:30 a.m. EST on Thanksgiving.