Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade 2024: 6 new balloons, range of performers including Kylie Minogue, Temptations
The scene from a sun-filled Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2017 along Central Park West. The 2024 version Thursday will most likely go off amid dark clouds and rain but parade organizers said the usual pageantry is still anticipated. Credit: AP/Craig Ruttle
Chances are it will rain on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday but that won't stop the festivities, organizers said.
Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies are making plans to thwart any threat attempts at one of the oldest Thanksgiving parades in the nation that annually draws millions of spectators to Manhattan.
Six new balloons — including Disney's Minnie Mouse, Marshall from PAW Patrol and Spider-Man — will make their parade debuts, and more than 3.5 million people are expected to line the route. Another 50-million-plus viewers are expected to watch on TV.
The event is the second-oldest major Thanksgiving parade in the United States, along with one in Detroit. The oldest Thanksgiving parade began in Philadelphia in 1920.
The NYPD and the FBI were among several law enforcement agencies that said in a recent report the parade was an "attractive target" to terrorists, according to ABC News, which said it had obtained a "joint assessment" done by the agencies.
According to the report, the law enforcement agencies said that while there was no specific threat, they raised concerns about "lone offenders and small groups of individuals seeking to commit acts of violence."
The NYPD will have sanitation trucks and other so-called "blocker vehicles" deployed along the route, the ABC News report said. The police department did not immediately respond Monday to Newsday's requests for comment about its plans.
There are weather concerns, too.
The National Weather Service is calling for a 70% chance of showers beginning about 1 a.m. Thursday and continuing through the prime parade time and into early afternoon. Temperatures are expected to be in the low 50s with light winds.
Nevertheless, the parade should be the usual holiday spectacle: with 22 big balloons, seven so-called balloonicles, 34 floats, 11 marching bands, 28 performers, 28 clown crews and 11 performance groups. Macy's said the best viewing areas will be along Sixth Avenue between West 59th and West 38th streets.
Pre-parade events begin in earnest Wednesday, with the Macy's Balloon Inflation and Float Viewing event, open to the public from 1 to 6 p.m. and beginning with entrance to a queue area at West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue. The line opens Wednesday at noon.
The parade broadcast will be shown live on NBC and Peacock, running from 8:30 a.m. until noon, with the route stretching from West 77th Street and Central Park West, then onto Central Park South and down Sixth Avenue to its final destination on West 34th Street at Macy's Herald Square. Central Park West will be closed to traffic from West 72nd to West 86th streets beginning at midnight Wednesday through noon Thursday, as will the 79th Street Transverse, officials said.
This is the 100th anniversary of the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, launched in 1924, although the parade didn't take place between 1942 and 1944 because of World War II.
The Long Island Rail Road has announced the addition of six morning westbound trains from Jamaica to Grand Central Terminal, four additional eastbound trains from Penn Station to Jamaica and five from Grand Central to Jamaica.
One of the new floats, "Gabby's Dollhouse" will include a 55-foot-tall balloon featuring Gabby and Pandy Paws that will have 10 different shades of pink.
"As a little girl growing up in New Jersey, the Thanksgiving Day parade was what you always tuned into and the balloons were, of course, the best part," says Traci Paige Johnson, the co-creator of "Gabby's Dollhouse" with Jennifer Twomey.
"That little 7-year-old girl in me is just like, 'Oh my God!' — something from your brain that you created that all the world watches floating down New York City is just absolutely incredible."
Featured performers this year include Alex Warren, Ariana Madix, Syosset's Idina Menzel, Kylie Minogue and The Temptations. Grandstand seating is for VIPs only, with no access for the general public.
With Olivia Winslow and AP
Chances are it will rain on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday but that won't stop the festivities, organizers said.
Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies are making plans to thwart any threat attempts at one of the oldest Thanksgiving parades in the nation that annually draws millions of spectators to Manhattan.
Six new balloons — including Disney's Minnie Mouse, Marshall from PAW Patrol and Spider-Man — will make their parade debuts, and more than 3.5 million people are expected to line the route. Another 50-million-plus viewers are expected to watch on TV.
The event is the second-oldest major Thanksgiving parade in the United States, along with one in Detroit. The oldest Thanksgiving parade began in Philadelphia in 1920.
The NYPD and the FBI were among several law enforcement agencies that said in a recent report the parade was an "attractive target" to terrorists, according to ABC News, which said it had obtained a "joint assessment" done by the agencies.
According to the report, the law enforcement agencies said that while there was no specific threat, they raised concerns about "lone offenders and small groups of individuals seeking to commit acts of violence."
The NYPD will have sanitation trucks and other so-called "blocker vehicles" deployed along the route, the ABC News report said. The police department did not immediately respond Monday to Newsday's requests for comment about its plans.
There are weather concerns, too.
The National Weather Service is calling for a 70% chance of showers beginning about 1 a.m. Thursday and continuing through the prime parade time and into early afternoon. Temperatures are expected to be in the low 50s with light winds.
Nevertheless, the parade should be the usual holiday spectacle: with 22 big balloons, seven so-called balloonicles, 34 floats, 11 marching bands, 28 performers, 28 clown crews and 11 performance groups. Macy's said the best viewing areas will be along Sixth Avenue between West 59th and West 38th streets.
Pre-parade events begin in earnest Wednesday, with the Macy's Balloon Inflation and Float Viewing event, open to the public from 1 to 6 p.m. and beginning with entrance to a queue area at West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue. The line opens Wednesday at noon.
The parade broadcast will be shown live on NBC and Peacock, running from 8:30 a.m. until noon, with the route stretching from West 77th Street and Central Park West, then onto Central Park South and down Sixth Avenue to its final destination on West 34th Street at Macy's Herald Square. Central Park West will be closed to traffic from West 72nd to West 86th streets beginning at midnight Wednesday through noon Thursday, as will the 79th Street Transverse, officials said.
This is the 100th anniversary of the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, launched in 1924, although the parade didn't take place between 1942 and 1944 because of World War II.
The Long Island Rail Road has announced the addition of six morning westbound trains from Jamaica to Grand Central Terminal, four additional eastbound trains from Penn Station to Jamaica and five from Grand Central to Jamaica.
One of the new floats, "Gabby's Dollhouse" will include a 55-foot-tall balloon featuring Gabby and Pandy Paws that will have 10 different shades of pink.
"As a little girl growing up in New Jersey, the Thanksgiving Day parade was what you always tuned into and the balloons were, of course, the best part," says Traci Paige Johnson, the co-creator of "Gabby's Dollhouse" with Jennifer Twomey.
"That little 7-year-old girl in me is just like, 'Oh my God!' — something from your brain that you created that all the world watches floating down New York City is just absolutely incredible."
Featured performers this year include Alex Warren, Ariana Madix, Syosset's Idina Menzel, Kylie Minogue and The Temptations. Grandstand seating is for VIPs only, with no access for the general public.
With Olivia Winslow and AP
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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