Hot-air balloons on Wednesday got into shape for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as crews inflated the giant characters on the streets of New York City.
The parade was to start yesterday morning, with dozens of huge balloons set to take to the skies. Floats, entertainers, marching bands and more were to grace the streets.
About 100 balloon technicians and volunteers worked on Wednesday to puff up dozens of characters.
Photo: AFP
It takes about eight hours to ready them all, said Kathleen Wright, who oversees production operations for Macy’s Studios.
The process might be gradual, but Ethan Otieno was excited to see it.
“I think it’s very cool to watch them be inflated and try to guess the characters,” the tourist from Texas said while watching with relatives.
Photo: AFP
Otieno’s favorite balloon was Smokey Bear.
The parade runs from Manhattan’s Upper West Side to Macy’s Herald Square flagship store on 34th Street.
Officials were watching the weather, as the forecast was for a somewhat gusty day. For safety reasons, New York City law prohibits Macy’s from flying the full-size balloons if sustained winds exceed 37kph or wind gusts are over 56kph.
New balloons in this year’s lineup include Buzz Lightyear, Pac-Man, Mario from Super Mario Brothers and a 9.8m-tall balloon onion carriage featuring eight characters from the world of Shrek.
“It’s a lot of those really nostalgic and familiar characters, everybody’s favorites,” Wright said.
There are also new balloons derived from characters in this year’s Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters.
New floats this year include a Pop Mart entry, with the ubiquitous figure Labubu, as well as Skullpanda, Peach Riot, Dimoo, Molly, Duckoo and Mokoko.
A star-studded lineup of performers — including Cynthia Erivo, Conan Gray, Lainey Wilson and Audrey Nuna, EJAE and Rei Ami of HUNTR/X, the fictional girl group at the heart of KPop Demon Hunters — were to be sprinkled throughout the show, along with a slew of marching bands, Broadway cast members and others.
As is traditional, the Radio City Rockettes were expected.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS