Macy’s 85th Thanksgiving Day Parade was one of the most successful in New York’s history, drawing an enormous crowd and entertaining more than 50 million TV viewers. The windless weather and relatively warm temperatures made it a perfect day for a parade.
Though police would not release a crowd estimate, a Macy’s spokesperson said: “We expected 3.5 million people at the parade and I’d say we were north of that.”
Some of the beloved characters featured in this year’s parade were Snoopy, SpongeBob SquarePants and Hello Kitty, while some offbeat new additions included “Julius,” Paul Frank’s sock monkey and Tim Burton’s “B.,” the creepy boy made from discarded birthday balloons.
According to Macy’s spokesperson Orlando Veras, there were 8,000 people in the parade, which included 11 marching bands, 800 clowns, 1,600 cheerleaders, dancers and singers, 27 floats, 15 enormous balloons and 44 medium ones.
“We had a great parade today. I’ve done this for 11 years and these were the biggest crowds I have seen,” he said.
