Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: times, TV and how to watch online
The holiday season always involves a celebrity-studded spectacular from the New York store and his year's covid-safe edition is not to be missed.
The holiday season is a time full of tradition but with covid-19 cases on the rise nationwide this will be a Thanksgiving unlike any other. Department store Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been going on for nearly a century but its 94th edition will be a coronavirus-safe affair.
The 2020 parade will be televised live on NBC to avoid encouraging people to crowd the streets to witness the spectacle, and has provided a logistical challenge for the organisers.
“We have to plan this thing about 18 months out, because we do things like select the bands, we design and build our floats, our balloons and everything,” said NBC executive producer Susan Tercero. “As you can imagine, when we got to March of this past year, we’d already had a parade plan.”
How to watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2020
This year’s celebrations will be hosted by NBC News’ Today team of Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Al Roker. The latter will be hosting his 25th Macy’s Parade.The coverage will be aired nationwide on NBC, from 9:00am to noon (Eastern Time) on Thursday November 26.
If you tune into NBC’s television channel you will be able to watch the programme in full, but there are other ways to catch the display. It will be available to watch live on NBC.com and on a variety of streaming channels, such as Verizon’s YouTube channel or their Twitter page.
What to expect from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2020
In planning the 2020 parade Macy’s have worked closely with the City of New York to come up with a spectacle that keeps all involved safe. As such the usual 2.5-mile route around the city has been abandoned to focus instead on the final section of the parade.
This part will be held directly in front of the store itself, which will open at 5:00pm on Thanksgiving afternoon and stay open until Saturday. The stripped-back Parade will require around 75% fewer participants and all performances will be socially distanced. Those involved will also be wearing face masks and additional personal protective equipment if required.
Will there be celebrity appearances?
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is always garnished with more than a sprinkle of celebrity and this year’s offering will be no different. After being in the news for her contribution to the coronavirus vaccine effort, country star Dolly Parton will be the biggest name in attendance and will be performing from the Home Sweet Home float.
Here’s a full list of the Parade guests for 2020: