{"id":35266,"date":"2024-11-29T01:11:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T07:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=35266"},"modified":"2024-11-29T01:11:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T07:11:23","slug":"macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-big-balloons-wet-weather-and-21-protesters-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=35266","title":{"rendered":"Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade: Big balloons, wet weather and 21 protesters arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade<\/u><\/a> marched, soared and roared into its second century on Thursday despite a drenching rain and a brief disruption from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York City police said they arrested 21 people after protesters jumped barricades and sat down on the parade route with Palestinian flags and a \u201cDon\u2019t Celebrate Genocide\u201d banner. They chanted \u201cFree, free Palestine!\u201d as a giant Ronald McDonald balloon bore down on them on Manhattan\u2019s Sixth Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People protesting Israel\u2019s war in Gaza also interrupted last year\u2019s parade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the wet weather, ponchos and umbrellas were part of the festivities, along with the usual giant balloons, floats and star-studded performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest edition of the annual holiday tradition featured new Spider-Man and Minnie Mouse balloons, zoo and pasta-themed floats, an ode to Big Apple coffee and bagels, performances from Jennifer Hudson, Idina Menzel and Kylie Minogue, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lineup was a far cry from the parade\u2019s initial incarnation 100 years ago, which featured floats showing scenes from Mother Goose, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Miss Muffet and the Spider, and other fairy tales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some things remained the same, though. As in 1924, there were plenty of marching bands and lots of clowns, followed by the grand finale of Santa Claus ushering in the holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s parade featured 17 giant, helium-filled character balloons, 22 floats, 15 novelty and heritage inflatables, 11 marching bands from as far away as Texas and South Dakota, 700 clowns, 10 performance groups, award-winning singers and actors, and the WNBA champion New York Liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other highlights included reality TV star Ariana Madix,<\/u><\/a> hip-hop\u2019s T-Pain,<\/u><\/a> country duo Dan + Shay, The War and Treaty,<\/u><\/a> The Temptations, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots, Broadway veteran Lea Salonga, and \u201cGlow\u201d actor and Macy\u2019s spokesperson Alison Brie<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One new float spotlighted the Rao\u2019s food brand,<\/u><\/a> featuring a knight and a dragon in battle made with actual pasta elements. Another celebrated the Bronx Zoo\u2019s 125th anniversary with representations of a tiger, a giraffe, a zebra and a gorilla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe work that we do, the opportunity to impact millions of people and bring a bit of joy for a couple of hours on Thanksgiving morning, is what motivates us every day,\u201d said Will Coss, Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade executive producer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parade route stretched 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side to Macy\u2019s Herald Square flagship store on 34th Street, which served as a performance backdrop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC\u2019s Al Roker<\/u><\/a> walked part of the route before joining co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb<\/u><\/a> outside the store for the remainder of the live TV coverage. \u201cWicked\u201d film star Cynthia Erivo presented the retiring Kotb with flowers to commemorate what could be her last parade broadcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rain didn\u2019t stop anything \u2014 the parade has only been canceled three times, from 1942 to 1944 during World War II \u2014 but organizers monitored wind speeds to make sure the big balloons were safe to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temperatures hovered near 50 degrees F (10 degrees C), with rain throughout the morning and winds around 10 mph (16 kph), well within the acceptable range for letting Snoopy, Bluey and their friends soar. City law prohibits Macy\u2019s from flying full-size balloons if sustained winds exceed 23 mph (37 kph) or wind gusts are over 35 mph (56 kph).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade marched, soared and roared into its second century on Thursday despite a drenching rain and a brief disruption from pro-Palestinian demonstrators. New York City police said they arrested 21 people after protesters jumped barricades and sat down on the parade route with Palestinian flags and a \u201cDon\u2019t Celebrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[24442],"class_list":["post-35266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-macys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35269,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35266\/revisions\/35269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}