Crowds Get Sneak Peek of the Macy’s Parade Balloons

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Standing behind the barricade on Columbus and Amsterdam Avenue, one mother decides whether she wants to brave
the crowds to get an early look at the parade float balloons. Photo: Simone M. Scully.

Macy’s began inflating their Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons in the streets around the Museum of Natural History, between 79th and 81st street, at 3 p.m. the day before the parade, drawing huge crowds.

Visitors were allowed to enter the enclosure at 79th Street and make their way around the museum before exiting at the same spot. Police cordoned off the streets every few minutes to allow people to cross to the other side.

For Jamaina Barroso, a Brazilian visiting from Boca Raton, this was part of the Thanksgiving Day Parade experience. “I’ve seen the parade in movies and I wanted to see it in real life,” she said. “It’s a dream come true for me.” She planned on leaving for the parade at 6 a.m. Thanksgiving morning to get a good spot.

Crowds walked around the Museum of Natural History to get a chance to look at the balloons as they were being
inflated. Photo: Simone Scully.

Another tourist, Susan Houser from Colorado, had lost her husband and son in the crowd when they went to the museum, and was trying to find them. “I don’t think I’m going to the parade, I have too many kids,” she said.

“It’s been crazy since about 4 p.m.,” said one NYPD officer. “There are lots of families out because it’s a warm day.”  It was still 52 degrees at 6 p.m.

New balloons in the parade line-up this year included Hello Kitty, Papa Smurf and the Elf on the Shelf.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 24th, 2012 at 2:09 pm. It is filed under Pulse, Street Buzz and tagged with , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.