For millions of people, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a turkey day tradition, but they’ll have to wake up a little earlier this year: the festivities kick off a half hour earlier, starting at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday.
According to Women’s Wear Daily, this year’s event will feature some 49 giant balloons, 5,000 costumes and 300 pounds of glitter. If the latter doesn’t sound like much, try dropping a pinch of it in your house and see how long it takes to clean it all up.
There are 16 character balloons this year, with old favorites taking to the air above New York City once again. But for 2023 there are seven new ones, including Monkey D. Luffy from the popular anime One Piece; Kung Fu Panda‘s Po; Beagle Scout Snoopy; the Pillsbury Doughboy; and at 73 feet, the longest entry: Leo, the lizard who is voiced by Adam Sandler in the new animated movie that shares the reptile’s name.
There’s also the first-ever NFT-inspired parade balloon Blue Cat and Chugs by Cool Cats — good luck explaining to your older relatives what an NFT is over dinner later in the day.
It takes 5,000 volunteers to pull off the event, which will also see stars from Broadway and the world of pop music performing, from Cher and Pentatonix to Bell Biv DeVoe and the Muppets, and themed floats promoting IP like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Warner Bros.’ forthcoming movie Wonka.
On that note, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell will even be driving a custom Good Burger convertible down the parade route to promote their sequel.
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