Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2023 Information by the Numbers – WWD

The 97th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will march by way of New York Metropolis, filling the streets, skies and plenty of tv screens with colourful, festive floats, balloons and performers on Thursday.

Since 1924, Macy’s workers have hosted the parade with its elaborate floats and balloons to unfold vacation cheer and promote America’s largest division retailer. The parade has grown and tailored through the years, mixing in balloons and floats that includes the most recent characters in youngsters’s leisure together with basic mainstays of the parade, like Snoopy and Tom the Turkey.

Will Coss, government producer of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, explains that retaining it contemporary, enjoyable and entertaining is the important thing to its longevity. “The gifted crew of artisans and manufacturing specialists of Macy’s Studios work year-round to ship the nation’s most beloved vacation occasion, reside on Thanksgiving morning. On behalf of my total crew, we’re proud to carry this accountability and problem ourselves yearly to create new unbelievable designs and larger-than-life character balloons, all creating lifelong reminiscences for parade followers nationwide,” Coss completely advised WWD.

“Our purpose is to entertain the hundreds of thousands of spectators, each reside in New York Metropolis and watching at dwelling throughout the nation, with time-honored traditions and thrilling newness.”

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade 2023

In 2023, the parade will begin half-hour earlier at 8:30 a.m. in all time zones, extending the spectacle for the primary time in 50 years. “We’re excited to deliver the nation seven new character balloons, 4 new floats and 12 of the nation’s most interesting marching bands, many marching the parade for the primary time,” Coss stated.

Including to the expertise, Macy’s has launched a brand new on-line sport the place followers can discover the parade nearly and find out about its historical past.

“One in every of my favourite parade moments that I stay up for yearly is watching the faces of spectators mild up as our iconic balloons, fantastical floats and performances make their approach down the streets of New York on Thanksgiving morning,” Coss stated. “As a local New Yorker, I grew up watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and it’s so particular to be overseeing the identical iconic occasion a long time later and offering the identical magic with followers of all ages alongside the route and throughout the nation.”

49 Balloons

In 2023, there will probably be 16 character balloons, together with seven which might be new and 33 heritage and novelty balloons.

One of many new character balloons options Blue Cat and Chugs by Cool Cats, which gained final yr’s public vote to rework an NFT character into the first-ever NFT-inspired parade balloon.

The opposite new balloons are:

Whereas Snoopy returns in a model new type this yr, he holds the document for probably the most years flown by a personality balloon, totaling 40 appearances in 2019. Dragon Ball Z’s Goku is the tallest balloon at 56 toes this yr, whereas Leo the Lizard is the longest at 73 toes.

26 Fantastical Floats and eight,000 Hours of Work

Tom Turkey begins the parade yearly, whereas Santa Claus closes it at Herald Sq.. In 2023, the parade will function 26 floats, together with 4 new ones. The Macy’s crew crafted the floating phases, that includes elaborate, fantastical parts that deliver every theme to life, equivalent to big hand-painted cherries for the brand new Willy Wonka one.

The brand new 2023 floats and their featured performers are:

The biggest float is Santa’s Sleigh, which closes the fest yearly. It’s 60 toes lengthy and three.5 tales tall.

The 27 painters, carpenters, animators, sculptors, welders, scene and costume designers and electricians and engineers that make up the Macy’s Parade Studio crew spend greater than 8,000 hours behind the scenes annually bringing the parade to life. A parade float takes about 4 months to assemble, plus extra time for ideation and design. Two thousand gallons of paint, 300 kilos of glitter and 200 kilos of confetti go into the festive creations, in response to Macy’s.

8,000 members

This yr’s musical friends embrace Bell Biv DeVoe, Brandy, Chicago, En Vogue, Enhyphen, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors, Jessie James Decker, Ashley Park with the forged and “Muppets of Sesame Avenue,” Pentatonix, Paul Russell, Amanda Shaw and Alex Smith, and Manuel Turizo.

The Radio Metropolis Rockettes return for his or her sixty fourth yr on the parade, and Macy’s Singing Christmas Tree additionally returns, lit up by a choir of 60 Macy’s workers and Bigs and Littles from Huge Brothers Huge Sisters of America.

Along with the star-studded forged of performers, a plethora of volunteers march within the parade, doing vital jobs like serving to maintain the balloons.

“The Macy’s Parade is created by its colleagues, a practice which began with the primary parade in 1924. This yr’s parade options greater than 5,000 volunteers comprised of Macy’s colleagues, family and friends. There are roughly 8,000 complete members, which embrace volunteers alongside among the nation’s most gifted marching bands and efficiency teams,” Coss stated.

5,000 Elaborate Costumes

The parade will function greater than 5,000 costumes, uniforms and official jackets, in response to Kimberly Montgomery, Macy’s Studios costume director.

“As I design costumes for the parade, I ask myself a number of questions: Does it inform a narrative? How can we make this weather-friendly? How can we adapt for volunteers of all sizes, in order that anybody who wears it has the most effective time in it? How can we create area for heat layers to suit beneath if wanted? Additionally, I discover each alternative so as to add a splash of colour and a bit of into the costumes. A festive celebration requires festive design,” Montgomery advised WWD.

One in every of Montgomery’s favourite parade seems to be she’s designed is from the enduring Tom the Turkey float. “In 2018, I had the chance to design and produce Macy’s Autumn Starlet costumes that accompany the normal first float Tom the Turkey, [when] the float was skillfully rebuilt by our Macy’s Studios crew,” Montgomery stated. “What resulted are superb autumnal tailcoat and vested costumes, product of stretch copper velvet to suit a number of physique sorts. [They] function crystal sheer autumn leaves swooping off the decrease again, sprinkled calmly with Swarovski crystals. These costumes are an ideal illustration of the magic of the Macy’s Parade — a wonderfully choreographed ensemble stepping off on a crisp autumn morning, topped with shiny copper acorn fascinators and bowler hats.”

The 97th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air on NBC at 8:30 a.m. EST and stream on Peacock on Thursday.