100 volunteers bring Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons to life in 8 hours

Record ID: 1699138

  • Title: 100 volunteers bring Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons to life in 8 hours
  • Date: 23rd November 2022
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 23, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WORKERS PREPARING BALLOON FLOATS FOR MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DONNA GAUTHIER, AUSTIN, TEXAS, RESIDENT WHO CAME TO NEW YORK WITH HER HUSBAND BRANDON (TO HER LEFT) AND CHILDREN, SAYING: "We're here to see the Macy's 2022 Thanksgiving Parade! We're so excited! Yeahhhh!" VARIOUS OF WORKERS PREPARING BALLOON FLOATS FOR MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SETH FLAHERTY, 15, VISITING NEW YORK WITH FAMILY, SAYING: “The Minions balloon is my favorite because I’ve always enjoyed the Minions movies. They’re just really funny movies.” (SOUNDBITE) (English) AYDEN FLAHERTY, 12, VISITING NEW YORK WITH FAMILY, SAYING: "I like the Macy's (balloon) because we went to the store this morning, and we saw it for Thanksgiving." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEX WILLIAMS, VISITING FAMILY IN NEW YORK FROM FLORIDA, SAYING: “My favorite was actually 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid because I like the books and I like its humor.” VARIOUS OF WORKERS PREPARING BALLOON FLOATS FOR MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (SOUNDBITE) (English) MONICA DEBRIDE, NEW YORKER SEEING MACY’S BALLOONS IN PERSON FOR THE FIRST TIME, SAYING: “We are here to see the balloons for the very first time. We are New Yorkers, born and raised, but I was excited to bring my daughter for the first time. It was a beautiful day.” VARIOUS OF WORKERS PREPARING BALLOON FLOATS FOR MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE, INCLUDING STRIKER, U.S. SOCCER STAR BALLOONICLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CINDY MANDAT, VISITING NEW YORK FROM CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, SAYING: “It’s a beautiful day to come out and see them. The sun just makes them look that much better. We didn’t realize how big they are, now we see why they’re all tied down and have nets over them. So, tomorrow will be great seeing them and they’ll almost as tall as the buildings.” VARIOUS OF WORKERS PREPARING BALLOON FLOATS FOR MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE, INCLUDING SMOKEY BEAR (SOUNDBITE) (English) AYDEN FLAHERTY, 12, VISITING NEW YORK WITH FAMILY, SAYING: “Well, it’s our first time seeing the Thanksgiving parade.” (SOUNDBITE) (English) SETH FLAHERTY, VISITING NEW YORK, SAYING: “Yeah, it’s her first time seeing the parade, I’ve seen it when I was really little, but coming back and to have these memories is going to be really nice and enjoyable.” VARIOUS OF WORKERS PREPARING BALLOON FLOATS FOR MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE / CROWD LOOKING ON (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEBBIE RAHN, VISITING FAMILY IN NEW YORK FROM MINNESOTA, SAYING: “Like I said, it was just always on my bucket list. I’ve watched it every year on tv since I was little, you know? What year did it start? It seems like I’ve seen them all.” VARIOUS OF WORKERS PREPARING BALLOON FLOATS FOR MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOSEPH WILLIAMS, VISITING FAMILY IN NEW YORK FROM FLORIDA, SAYING: “I think it was amazing how we got to have the chance to see them inflate.” CROWD LOOKING ON VARIOUS MORE OF INFLATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) MONICA DEBRIDE, NEW YORKER, WHO BROUGHT HER DAUGHTER, BROOKLYN, TO SEE MACY’S BALLOONS IN PERSON FOR THE FIRST TIME, SAYING: "How do you feel about the balloons?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROOKLYN MCFALL, 8, DEBRIDE 'S DAUGHTER, NEW YORKER SEEING MACY’S BALLOONS IN PERSON FOR THE FIRST TIME, SAYING: “It feels so great to be here, it’s so pretty for all the things, all of the themes of things, to float around and make things happy.” (SOUNDBITE) (English) MONICA DEBRIDE, NEW YORKER, WHO BROUGHT HER DAUGHTER, BROOKLYN, TO SEE MACY’S BALLOONS IN PERSON FOR THE FIRST TIME, SAYING: “Yeah, we’re excited to see it on tv tomorrow. So, we’re excited today.” VARIOUS OF WORKERS INFLATING "BELIEVE" MACY'S BALLOON (SOUNDBITE) (English) MACY'S, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION OPERATIONS, KATHLEEN WRIGHT, SAYING: "So we have a team of about 100 inflation volunteers. There are a dedicated, trained inflation team. They come to a few trainings per year so that they know how to inflate tourbillons. It's very specialized. Takes about 8 hours for us to inflate all day today. So about 8 hours and 100 people is what it takes to get our balloons up and ready for tomorrow morning." VARIOUS OF WORKERS INFLATING BALLOONS (SOUNDBITE) (English) MACY'S, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION OPERATIONS, KATHLEEN WRIGHT, SAYING: "So this year we have four new giant character balloons in the parade. We have Dino and Baby Dino from Sinclair. This is their third iteration of the Dino balloon. So we're so excited to have them back in the parade this year. We also have another iteration of our Greg Heffley balloon from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This year, that balloon will also have a balloona call, which is a balloon on top of a vehicle that will go down the road in front of it. So that's very exciting. We also have Stuart, the Minion, a very big fan favorite, and Bluey. So we're really excited about all four of those new giant balloons that will be in the parade. We also have a very other cool unit to celebrate the U.S. men's soccer team being in the FIFA World Cup. So we have Striker, the U.S. soccer star. That is also a series of balloons and a balloona call. So a lot of new and exciting things that are going to be on our route this year." VARIOUS OF WORKERS INFLATING BALLOONS
  • Embargoed: 7th December 2022 20:15
  • Keywords: 12 marching bands 16 giant character balloons 28 floats Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade NYC streets
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA001184023112022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Baby Shark, Baby DINO, and Papa Smurf balloons popped up near West 81st and 77th Streets in Manhattan on Wednesday (November 23) ahead of the 96th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade sta starts at 8:45 a.m. ET on Thursday (November 24).
    Organizers expect three million people will be watching the event in person, lined up along the parade route from New York City's Upper West Side to Macy's flagship store at Herald Square.
    Altogether, 16 giant inflatables, 28 floats, 12 marching bands, 700 clowns, and Santa Claus, plus many musical stars will entertain the spectators.
    (Production by: Aleksandra Michalska, Eric Cox and Dan Fastenberg)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register